About Project
Project Host & Mentor
Deliverables included a user-friendly, impactful website for I-Life and mentorship for team members to enhance their skills and contribute to their professional portfolios.
Managing Diverse Teams & Limited Resources
This project included coordinating a team with diverse backgrounds and varying levels of experience and managing the project with limited time and resources.
Gaining Real Insights
Exposing participants to genuine feedback from real-world users and providing valuable insights and learning experiences is essential.
Balancing Functionality and Cost for Non-Profit Needs
The challenge lay in balancing cost-effectiveness with functionality, ensuring the website was both user-friendly and sustainable for the organization to operate independently.
Understand the Challenges
Defining the Problems
Stakeholder Interview
Our team utilized the KJ method and brainstorming sessions to comprehensively prepare for stakeholder interviews.
Our discussions delved into their past experiences, expectations from this project, and the resources, budget, and other support available to us for website development.
Following our brainstorming session, we employed the 5W1H method (Who, What, Where, When, Why, and How) to meticulously review and refine our questions, ensuring comprehensive coverage of all necessary aspects.
These refined questions were then handed over to our researcher, who further formalized them into a structured questionnaire for the stakeholder interviews.
Analyzing Stakeholder Insights
Following the stakeholder interview, our team reconvened to extract and analyze key insights. We employed a combination of methods, including the KJ method, Point of View (POV), and How Might We (HMW), to thoroughly dissect the information gathered.
From the results of the KJ method, we determined that stakeholders identify educating the public on supporting adults with health issues as a critical need. This comes from numerous pieces of feedback indicating a societal gap in understanding how to assist capable adults who can contribute to the economy despite their health challenges.
Collaborative User Interview Planning
Our focus was to identify the specific user demographics we needed to engage with and clarify the key information we sought to gather through these interviews.
Collaborative User Interviews
Adopting a two-pronged approach for user interviews, we aimed to delve deeper into user motivations and behaviours. Our inquiries focused on understanding what subjects users find compelling on the existing website, which topics particularly pique their interest, and the factors influencing their decision to donate. We explored their motivational triggers, frequency of donations, and any other relevant aspects. This dual approach was designed to garner comprehensive insights into user preferences and decision-making processes, crucial for refining our website's design and content strategy.
Evaluating Existing Websites with Users—Think Aloud
In our quest to refine and enhance the user experience, we presented the existing website to our interviewees for their feedback.
We sought to gauge whether users could easily find what they were looking for and if the website effectively communicated its intended message.
Use Persona Spectrum to Create Persona
Following the user interviews, we utilized the Persona Spectrum method to create detailed personas. This approach allowed us to translate the insights and data gathered from the interviews into well-defined user personas.
Ideating and Looking for Solutions
Implementing Solutions through the HMW Method
To effectively address the identified issues with the existing website, we utilized the "How Might We" (HMW) method.
Ideating
I encourage all team members, regardless of their profession, to sketch any wireframe that comes to mind. This approach fosters more creative, out-of-the-box ideas within our team.
Designing the solutions
Main Ideas
❶ Visual Storytelling and Mission Communication:
Our strategy included leveraging visual storytelling and simple, concise language to effectively convey the organization's mission and the necessity for assistance. This approach aimed to inspire empathy and understanding among users by providing clear, relatable imagery and easily digestible content.
➋ Project Showcase Session:
A dedicated session was designed to showcase the various projects undertaken by the organization, each linked to their respective individual web pages. This section aims to provide users with a clear and organized overview of the organization's diverse initiatives.
➌ Strategic Content Reorganization:
We implemented a strategic reordering of the website's content, prioritizing storytelling over financial reports. Our research indicated that the primary interest of users initially lies in understanding the organization's stories and impact.
Once users are familiar with the organization's mission and the stories behind it, they are more inclined to explore financial details and transparency aspects.
➍ Storytelling Through Blogs:
We initiated a blog section to share compelling stories, recognizing the power of storytelling in this project.
➎ Quick Action Feature in Articles: Engagement and Connectivity:
Each article on the website is equipped with a designated 'Quick Action' section, strategically embedded to encourage immediate reader engagement. Actions available include making a donation, following the organization's Facebook group, or subscribing to RSS feeds.
Implementation Metrics and Achievements
✨Key metrics to track
Conclusion
Conclusion
Upon presenting our design to the stakeholders, the response was overwhelmingly positive. Three years on, they continue to use the website effectively for public engagement, witnessing an annual increase in audience reach. A year after launch, the project successfully collaborated with celebrities, demonstrating the website's pivotal role in achieving numerous accomplishments.
Takeaways
This project was a remarkable learning experience for me, marking my first time as a mentor and long-term workshop host. The journey was filled with uncertainties and challenges, including team members facing life changes such as relocating or changing jobs.
Despite these hurdles, the unwavering commitment of the team was inspiring. For six months, their consistent participation and contribution to every meeting demonstrated incredible dedication.
For many team members, this was their initial experience with a comprehensive, hands-on project. They found the process intriguing, and filled with questions and learning opportunities.
This real-world project helped them grasp the full cycle of design and development, offering invaluable insights.
