Nonprofit Org Website Redesig Case Study

Nonprofit Organization Website Redesign

Overview

As part of a project to enhance user experience through responsive web design (RWD), we undertook a case study focusing on a non-profit organization called Liberation Cat House (LCH) website's user interface (UI). Our primary goal was to revamp the website to improve its responsiveness and overall usability. To achieve this, we conducted stakeholder interviews to comprehensively understand the organization's requirements, goals, and objectives.

My Role

As a valuable team member, my primary responsibility was to design and research the user experience with utmost professionalism and attention to detail. I worked closely with the development team to conceptualize and create wireframes and prototypes for the user interface. Additionally, I conducted extensive user research to gather feedback and insights, which informed the design process and helped improve the overall user experience. My collaborative approach with other team members ensured that the designs aligned with the project goals and met the client's requirements

Problem, Solution & Impact

Problem

Liberation Cat House’s website and social media were inconsistent, causing it to blend in with other rescue groups.

Solution

Designing a website that enables potential adopters to experience improved sustainability that aligns with our digital image, ultimately leading to an increase in feline adoptions.

Impact

The development of a user-friendly website catering to feline enthusiasts may prove instrumental in augmenting the rate of cat adoptions. As a result of this initiative, a digitally sound image is also likely to emerge.

How Might We?

How might we design a travel app that offers a range of features in a single, user-friendly platform? Without this adequacy in a mobile app, many users revert to their previous search methods, resulting in lost opportunities.

Hypothesis

User Research

We are redesigning the website for non-profit organization, Liberation Cat House, which saves at-risk cats and kittens. They need more adopters, so we are revamping their website. We started with a stakeholder interview to understand their goals and target audience. Our team will create a user-friendly website that effectively communicates their mission.

Methodology

The first and foremost thing in the research was to do a stakeholder interview. The aim of the stakeholder interview for Liberation Cat House is to address the current decline in pet adoptions and the rise in new fosters. The organization seeks to promote its available adoptable pets and explore viable strategies to boost adoptions. Knowing what key performance indicators Liberation Cat House considers important would be helpful as to how we can support their vision and goals through a website redesign.

The key objectives of this interview are:

To understand the motivations and experiences of volunteers and donors in relation to the Liberation Cat House
To identify the challenges faced by Liberation Cat House in achieving its mission and goals.
To gather feedback on potential improvements to the organization's current website operations and services needs.

We identified the needs of the LCH team as to be:

Interviews

As part of our efforts to better understand our users' and customers' needs and preferences at LCH, we recently conducted a comprehensive survey on Google. The objective of this survey was to identify a select group of individuals who could offer us valuable insights and feedback related to the process of pet adoption and the challenges involved in caring for sick pets. Through this survey, we gathered a wealth of information that will enable us to improve our services and provide even better support to pet owners everywhere.

As part of our efforts to better understand the needs and preferences of our users and customers at LCH, we recently conducted a comprehensive survey on Google. The objective of this survey was to identify a select group of individuals who could offer us valuable insights and feedback related to the process of pet adoption, as well as the challenges involved in caring for sick pets. Through this survey, we were able to gather a wealth of information that will enable us to improve our services and provide even better support to pet owners everywhere.

After a thorough analysis of the applicants, we have successfully shortlisted a few candidates for the upcoming interview. The primary objective of this interview is to gain deeper insights into the pain points and goals that prospective pet owners encounter while looking for their ideal pets. We hope to understand the challenges they face in this process, the factors that influence their decisions, and their overall expectations from the experience. This information will enable us to improve our services and provide better support to our customers in their search for the perfect pet.

The key objectives of this interview are:

Understand the decision-making process of potential pet owners when they are looking for a new pet.
Identify the common challenges that potential pet owners face during their search for a new pet, such as a lack of information, difficulty in finding reliable sources, or understanding the needs of different types of pets.
Identify the sources of information that potential pet owners rely on when finding a new pet, such as online reviews, word-of-mouth recommendations, or social media platforms.

Affinity Diagram

We compiled all the interview responses and feedback we received during our research to synthesize the data. We then analyzed and organized the information by grouping similar ideas and themes using an affinity diagram. This helped us better understand the common patterns and trends from the data, allowing us to draw insightful conclusions and make informed decisions.

Empathy Map

Following the affinity diagram phase, we wanted to know more about how the users think, feel, do, and say, so we started to conduct research to learn what your users do, say, think, and feel. We created a user empathy map by combining interview notes and feedback. This helped us understand our users better.

We gathered the key findings of the users- what they felt, what they thought, what they wanted to do, and how they felt.

Key Findings from the Empathy Map:

Users felt that online booking was painful as they were concerned about internet crashes.
Users want to find all bookings in one place- under one booking.
Users wanted to be able to use their miles towards bookings.
Users wanted to find accommodations closest to the main activities they were choosing.

Definition & Synthesis

Once the information was gathered from the Research, we started combining all the research, observing your users’ needs, and highlighting opportunities for innovation. This step was followed by thinking about the user, and we developed the User Insight.

User Insight

A career-focused mid-20s pet owner needs a friendly, furry addition to their family because they are changing career paths, no longer working from home, and don't want to leave their current cat alone.

The User insight provided a valuable understanding of the target audience's needs and preferences, allowing us to tailor our product to better meet their expectations.

User Persona

We created a user persona to understand our target audience's needs. We gathered data through interviews, surveys, and focus groups to identify their demographics, behaviors, motivations, and preferences. The persona helped us understand their age, gender, education, profession, income, personality traits, beliefs, values, goals, needs, pain points, and expectations.

Competitor Analysis

To know and understand what the other apps offered, we researched compatible websites to comprehend what they provided and what opportunities we have to go above and beyond. In doing so, we went on a journey to analyze who our competitors were. Upon review, we sorted them into Direct and Indirect competitors.

We got the competitive advantages, strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. We put our heads together to design an app that offered everything the user needed in one sitting.

Ideation

We revisited our notes and compared the pain points and frustrations we noted earlier. We used this information to develop an Ideation plan for our travel app. The plan includes what users like, wish for, and any "what if" scenarios they may have.

Soon after, we prioritized to see what was really important to the User and the effort it would take to design and develop it. We worked on Feature Prioritization to organize what was important.

Value Proposition

Liberation Cat House is in the business of caring for our community, with or without fur. We want to help our at-risk cat population by providing permanent adoptions with great families or by spaying and neutering cats to prevent the rising cat overpopulation.

We perform because we have a team of expert fosters who care.

We're believable because we always find a home for a cat in need.

After compiling all the notes, we obtained a clear comprehension of the user flow and the site flow of the map. However, we realized the importance of mapping out the user's journey as they navigate through the app. This is where our User Journey came into play. With the assistance of the User Persona, we confidently mapped out her experience and the process.

Sitemap

We sat down to design the sitemap to make the user journey functional.

User Flow

Keeping the sitemap as a reference, we worked on the userflow.

We were able to test the user flow with our team and pears, it should the need for iteration.

Now that the User Flow was successful, it was time to create paper sketches to facilitate navigation for our users.

Wireframes

We examined various competitor apps to determine if users could find what they needed, outlined the wireframe to map it out, and then transformed it into wireframes.

Low- Fi wireframes of LCH's Desktop version.

Low- Fi wireframes of LCH's Mobile version.

We tested both the Desktop and the Mobile version, and based on the feedback, iterations were needed.