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
