4.25.2012

Structuring a User-Centered Website

The User Experience [UX] design team has been organizing various methods of user testing, specifically targeting more efficient ways of communicating content to our audience. Our strategy began with the user test, which involved having several volunteers tour through our 2011 site. From their feedback, as a team, we were able to map out pros and cons and make changes coming to the 2012 site, accordingly.


What Users Liked and Disliked About Our 2011 Site

Pros of the site included the overall design; its colors and pictures appealed to all of our test users. One thing we were surprised to learn is that many of the users preferred the footer to the main navigation. As far as cons go, many of the users stressed that the site needed better organization and clarification to understand the meaning and purpose behind the website. We also discovered that our language wasn’t well written, making it difficult for users to understand our links.

With this valuable user feedback, the UX team went straight to work on concept maps, site maps, user flow diagrams and detailed wireframes of each page to prepare the creation of a new, more user friendly website for Project C!

The development and UX teams working. Alisa Kessler, pictured far left, Jess Buse, center right, and Steph Rumph, far right.

According to our user feedback, we mapped out a user flow diagram to better understand the process our users experience when navigating through the site. Our goal was to create an easy, organized, and direct user flow with multiple options to reach your destination on the site.

Priorities for User Experience

Presenting the featured organizations was our main concern, followed by stressing the option to learn about them and provide the opportunity to vote, or learning how to get involved with that organization. We’ve also established the idea to share the stories of these organizations by focusing on social networking and bringing more traffic to the website to educate more individuals.

To wrap up the initial UX phase, we worked on several wireframe drafts. After our own team members presented their sketches and ideas, we began sketching out the overall idea on whiteboard with the design team.


From this first wireframe, the UX team built the first Photoshop wireframe, which was tweaked and edited a dozen times. In class, the entire team critiqued each wireframe draft for further improvement. At this point, the UX team is finalizing wireframes in-between design critiques to figure out what layouts work best on each page to prepare for the visual design and development phase!





We’re so excited to launch the 2012 Project C site, sharing our work with all of you! Your feedback is crucial and highly valued; if you would like to participate in our second round of user testing please email annette@clickingcreateschange.com.

User Experience Team | Project C

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