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UX/UI | Pratt Institute
New York Cares Redesign
I collaborated with two Pratt students to redefine the New York Cares user experience, and worked with New York Care’s UX team to understand challenges, find user insights, brainstorm design strategy, and redesign the user journey.
Problem
Statement
WEB&MOBILE REDESIGN
Youth find the New York Cares current website difficult to navigate and lacks social connectivity, The website hasn ot been redesigned since 2012, and we believe it needs significant modification to its information architecture for greater discoverability and more interactivity.
Duration: Aug-Dec 2019 16 weeks
Team: Leslie Lopez, Kelsey Gallagher
Contribution: User Interview/Research, Competitor Analysis, Tree Test/Card Sort, Information Architecture, Usability Testing
How might we attract and engage teenage users on the New York Cares website?
User
Research
We surveyed and interviewed three user groups of different ages. We found teens are more likely to volunteer with more social engagement and meaningful interactions. They enjoy using technology devices and like to volunteer in their fields of interests.
Survey
In the teen user group, we started by sending Google Form survey links to a Stuyvesant High School's Facebook chat group, and received 21 responses from freshmen to seniors. The survey was anonymous.
Teenagers expressed an interest in volunteering more.
Their top motivations are making Friends, helping the less fortunateand college application.
College Application
Target User Group
Highschoolers
Ultimately, our team chose High Schoolers as our final user group because we felt it would be most narrowed in focus. A great degree of students expressed a proclivity for volunteering either for fun or for their supplement their studies.
Pain Points
Interview insights
Competitor
Research
We analyzed 10 of New York Cares’ direct and indirect online competitors. All of whom function in the capacity of providing volunteer opportunities to visitors. We hoped to help New York Cares stand out among New York volunteer sites.
Simple Navigation
Interactive Design
Easier Location Search
Users benefit from one of form of global navigation. In contrast, having too many options overwhelms visitors. Precise navigation improves experience.
Users are more likely to appreciate interactive experiences on sites. Displaying statistics visually is more engaging and helps effectively reach audiences
A more user-friendly location search function prompts committed volunteering and helps foster a community of volunteers.
Information
Architecture
A better way to display and structure information would increase efficiency in volunteer search and user engagement. To build a more efficient and effective site map, we started by defining the user journey with the journey of specific tasks. We decided on three main actions we would focus on: volunteer search, make a donation and view volunteer profile.
Methods
Using Optimal Workshop, we went through three rounds of testing users to revise the site map. The first round involved crafting more concise wording for our subcategories—for example, ‘Volunteer Opportunities’ in lieu of 'projects.' Following this study, our initial main categories went down from nine to seven. Then, we conducted a tree test study focused on easing the navigation of subcategories that were confusing or had overlap-for example placing “recruiting volunteers” under “Volunteer” or “Partner with Us.”
Card Sort
Tree Test
Revised Site Map
More comprehensible wording & easier navigation
Usability
Testing
Our group constructed a mobile and desktop paper prototype to address the desires of our user group, high school students. Students prioritized making friends and brevity in their searches. Then, we tested users’ ability to locate and navigate our interactive designs. Our design of the event search and profile was well received, but we did have a few UX problems.
Paper Prototype
To save time and quickly test our ideas and the revised site map, we built a web and mobile paper prototype to learn:
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Whether the users were able to find target information more efficiently
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Whether the site navigation makes sense to users
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Whether our design concepts both engages and informs users
Opportunity
Users rely heavily on labeling and
visual cues when searching for information; they understand labels and icons better when they are in consistency.
Users appreciate a clean and direct path to their target actions. They also like limiting the number of options in volunteer choices as it saves decision time.
Users enjoy the social and interaction components such as the chat, share story functions and the interactive map to "pin" their desired volunteer location.
User Profile
Freedom and Customization
QR Codes
Users are able to add other volunteer friends or staff efficiently with their unique QR codes that can be accessed on the top right corner of their profiles.
Interactive Tree
Each user has an apple tree, which grows when they sign up for volunteers or engages more. The growth of the tree signifies user's growth as a contributing and valued volunteer of New York Cares.
Chat
There is an internal chat function which users can use to communicate with volunteer friends and staff. They can stay anonymous and their online personas if they prefer. Users can choose to be volunteer friends, but not actually have to share their personal life with their volunteer friends this way.