Information Architecture for Regional Nonprofit
One of the client’s strategic goals was to increase its members’ use of childcare, enrichment, and sport camps for children and teens. They suspected one of the factors leading to fewer signups was poor usability on the website sections dedicated to camp information and sign-up.
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The client uses a third-party service for transactions like registration and payment. The integration of this service with the rest of their web technology stack, in addition to lack of focus on user needs and mental models, led to a kludgy user experience.
Project Objective
Promote discovery of the client's core offerings by aligning site architecture with user mental models
My Role
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Content Strategy Lead
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User Research Lead
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Business Development​
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Engagement Lead​
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Stakeholder Management
Methods & Tactics
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Search Keyword Analysis
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Web Session Recording Analysis
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Task Analysis
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Usability Test
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Card Sort
Key User Profile
Parents interested in enrichment and sports camp offerings for their children
Research Approach
To identify recommendations for improving the user experience, I performed the following:
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​Session Recording Review
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I kicked off the research process by instrumenting and reviewing session recordings and heatmaps of the target pages using Hotjar. Using these, I identified common user task flows and areas for potential design improvement. Additionally, I noticed that some pages had a slow load time that led to additional frustration.
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​​Keyword Analysis​
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There is no better data source for uncovering what users are looking for and what they call it than actual search queries. I analyzed over a year’s worth of search engine and internal site search keywords. I isolated relevant keywords to pull out trends in core user labels as well as syntax with associated terms.
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​​​Card Sort
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The goal of the card sort was to understand how users classify camps so we could align the web experience with how users think.
I performed an open card sort with nine cards. Each card represented a deliberate choice across a matrix of classification variables:
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Camp theme (Specialty vs Sport)
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Duration (1 week vs > 1 week)
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Season (Winter vs Summer)
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Age / Developmental Stage
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Day vs Overnight
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Location
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I recruited some participants via an intercept survey on the website. If I had time during usability sessions, I invited some of our usability test participants to also complete the card sort. For intercept participants, the card sort was unmoderated. I asked usability test participants probing post-task questions about grouping and label logic; some of these participants chose to think out loud during while they were sorting cards.​​​
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Usability Test​​​
​After initial data gathering, I worked with a designer to prototype two new alternate information architecture concepts. I recruited participants through an email sent out to current users, screening for recent camp use or interest in a follow up survey. I then performed 10, hour-long remote sessions during which I asked participants to:
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describe their current experiences with the service, particularly the website.
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complete a series of tasks using the live website and one of two prototypes, randomizing the order of stimuli between participants.
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complete a card sort activity (time permitting).
Cards Used
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A camp a 2nd grader goes to during the day for a week over summer break to learn about Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math at the Clackamas location.
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A several-week camp at Camp Collins for a 7th grader to learn Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math over the summer. The 7th grader will stay at the camp the entire time.
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A camp a High School teenager stays at for more than one week during the summer to practice leadership skills and have fun outdoors at Camp Collins.
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A week-long camp to practice basketball skills during the day over winter break for a High Schooler at the Clackamas location.
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A week-long opportunity for a 7th grader to stay at a camp for the whole week and practice skiing on Mt Hood over winter break.
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A camp at the Clackamas location during the day over winter break for a 2nd grader to learn about cooking. This camp will only meet during the day for five days.
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A one-week opportunity for a 7th grader to stay at Camp Collins to practice basketball. This camp will meet over summer break.
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A one-week opportunity over winter break for a 2nd grader to learn basketball during the day at Camp Collins. The 2nd grader will return home at the end of each day.
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A summer break opportunity at the Clackamas YMCA for a 2nd grader to learn basketball. The 2nd grader will go home every day, but the camp will meet for several weeks.
Findings Summary
Discovery
Most users:
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Come to the site via Google through Chrome or Safari on a mobile device ​
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Use site search rather than site navigation, suggesting a need for an intuitive and useful navigation ​
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Most often access location-specific pages, closely followed by program-specific pages​​​​
Location plays an important part in how users conceptualize services.
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​25% of both organic and paid search queries coming to the site during February 15, 2018 - February 21, 2019 contained location-related keywords ranging in specificity from “near me” to the address of a specific facility. This represented the largest thematic chunk within combined organic and paid search traffic coming to the site.​​
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94% of organic search queries contained location-related terms.​​
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Part of this may be due to the nature of the organization and how it offers its services, but it also likely pertains to users’ geographic proximity and therefore the feasibility of accessing a service.​​​​
Usability
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My examination of session recordings and heatmaps yielded the finding that some target areas were too small and items that look like CTAs were not clickable throughout the site. Participants also experienced these issues during usability testing.​​​
Users frequently clicked on the title and bolded body text because they look like affordances. These areas were not hyperlinked at the time.
The chevron affordance has too small of a clickable / tappable target area, resulting in multiple clicks over a short timespan.
Decision-Making
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Participants most frequently said the following factored into their decision-making when evaluating camp options for their children:
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Trust & safety
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Whether or not their child was interested
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Whether the camp would fit into their schedule
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Whether they thought the camp would be fun for their children
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Cost/affordability/value for money
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Word of mouth from other parents and members of their trusted network ​​​​
​Additionally, card sort participants created 24 total categories. Within these, they most often grouped camps according to season, day vs overnight, and age. We implemented a camp exploration user flow that started with these criteria to augment the location-oriented main navigation structure. Interestingly, users were less focused on location in regard to classifying camps in the card sort. During the usability test, however, participants frequently noted logistic concerns pertaining to timing and geographic proximity.
Revised navigation and design tested well. Participants appreciated the more streamlined flow.
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For more detail, check out the report excerpt here.
What I enjoyed about this project
This project allowed me to dive into the technical architecture of the site as well as to investigate usability issues through the lens of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and on-site search. I also had the latitude to mix methods and consult a variety of sources for information about user needs and mental models.
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I enjoyed overseeing development of a prototype that contained the redesign options coming out of formative research and then validation testing that prototype. Above all, the project gave me the opportunity to have a positive impact by working with a community-focused, mission-driven client.
Upon revisiting the site, I discovered the client implemented most of the recommended changes.