UX design improvements

based on user research and google analytics assessment

ROLE: UX-researcher/designer, 2022/23

RESPONSIBILITIES: interviews and assessment of google analytics, concept, wireframing, prototyping, mockups

PROJECT VISION

The Voliere Zürich is an NGO with a nursing/rescue station for wild birds and aviaries, which are partly used to support international breeding efforts for rare tropical bird species. But: the website receives too little attention.

The overall goal was to create a concept that would enable new donors to be found and intuitively guide them through the website to introduce them to the work of the Voliere.

So, I wanted to improve the user experience on the Voliere website based on the information retrieved from users and google analytics. In addition, my aim was to improve the branding based on the already existing logo.

CHALLENGES

The biggest challenge was to reorganise the current website. Users that already use the website shall quickly be able to navigate the new website using pre-learned cues. I didn't want to change everything, but rather improve the concept already in place.

Another challenge was to work with the already existing logo design, which includes strong corporate design colors like orange and blue. I tried to use these colors in a guiding way.

This project highlights another area of UX Design: improving already existing structures.

RESEARCH

My research focused mainly on assessing google analytics (website clicks, etc.) and on a detailed analysis of the websites' navigation flows and cross-links. I looked at different use cases. For instance for someone, who needs a quick advice when finding an injured bird.

"If I found an injured bird, I wouldn't know where to click. But I have to act quickly."

Consistency missing

Corporate Design (colors, fonts) was not consistently integrated. Also the naming is inconsistent („Voliere“, „Voliere Gesellschaft Zürich“, „Wildvogel-Pflegestation“). This is important for a good branding and recognition.

Difficult crosslinking and navigation

For example, the News topic was repeated several times - just with different names - on the homepage, which leads to confusion. The overall navigation can be improved.

Important Content Missing

The main work of the Voliere is rescuing wild birds, but content was difficult to find. It does not get clear what is the whole scope of the Voliere.

TARGET USER

INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE ANALYSIS

To first get an idea how the navigation flow is integrated within the current website, I sketched the information architecture for it. I quickly noticed that the homepage was packed of information, while important information about the rescue center was missing - and did not appear under 'Services' (Dienstleistungen). I also noticed that three different topics ('News', 'In den Medien', 'Aktuelles') were basically leading to the same content. So I went ahead and structured a new navigation flow. Since one of the goals was to find new donors (Spender), more possibilities to donate have been integrated. See the second information architecture below.

IDEATION

Based on the findings from the information architecture analysis, I created a first draft for the homepage.

UX IMPROVEMENT

Within the UX improvement phase I tackled the pain points discovered during the research phase.

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Elimination of parts of the existing homepage

The current homepage is full of interesting topics, which makes it difficult to capture all of it. Therefore, I have tried to boil it down to the most important topics that should be clearly visible on the homepage:

Donation, About, News.

I eliminated a video, an overview of what has happened in the last year (it will reappear with the rescue center information), a picture slider with various quotes about birds, and finally an information of all the News-channels that have published about the Voliere.

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To highlight the Volieres' mayor contribution to wild bird conservation - a rescue center (Wildvogel-Auffangstation), the first menu item takes the user directly to the rescue center. In addition, the intro/about section of the homepage once again highlights the incredible work of the Voliere. But only in two sentences.

Two clearly visible buttons now link to a quick help for users, who have found an injured bird, or simply want to donate if they are already convinced of the Volieres' work.

The image slider, which links to events and news, is designed to allow the users to quickly grasp the work of the Voliere. A picture is worth a thousand words (Henrik Ibsen).

Key work of Voliere was placed to stand out within homepage

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The current news ('Aktuelles') section on the homepage takes a lot of space and may not inform so well about the latest news and events. Instead I suggest to integrate an imageslider. While hovering over the pictures in the imageslider, an overlay-text informs about the related news. (see video below)

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In principle, 'News', 'In den Medien' and 'Aktuelles' are the same thing. To improve the user experience and comprehension, I have combined them into a single menu item: 'events&news' / 'Veranstaltungen&News'.

Besides the menu item, the homepage also informs about the latest news and events in the imageslider.

News and events within menu for quick access

DESIGN KIT

PROTOTYPE - WORK FLOW

REFLECTION

The improvement of the Voliere website is work in progress. There are still a couple of things to improve - to name just one of them: highlighting what is clicked in the header. In addition, the Voliere is also aiming for a consistent branding on their fb visibility, newsletters and others.
I hope to contribute to an improvement, although I am aware that for an NGO such new implementations relies on donations. Investing in a website redesign means spending a lot of money. Nevertheless, I am confident that Voliere Zürich will achieve all its goals sooner or later, because their commitment and dedication to bird conservation is enourmous.