UX case study information architecture Raising Voices

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RAISING VOICES

Helping Activists Find Violence Prevention Tools

Research | Design | Taxonomy

My Role

Research, design, taxonomy

Timeframe

3 months

Team

Solo project

Tools

Optimal Workshop, Axure, Zoom

Summary

Creating innovative and successful methods for combating violence against women and children in East Africa made Raising Voices a leading voice in violence prevention. Sharing their methods and materials with community activists established a network of informed partners. However, as the amount of materials grew, finding resources became painstaking.

homepage screenshot of raising voices website 2023 — Homepage of Raising Voices website

The proliferation of violence prevention tools overloaded the existing structure, making navigation difficult.

Results

A more efficient and intuitive Information Architecture (IA) that enhanced resource library user navigation and findability.

The Problem

The site's global navigation (activism, innovation, influence) did not convey enough meaning to provide an intuitive, frictionless path and users struggled to find what they needed. Additionally, the website spoke louder to novice users unfamiliar with Raising Voices. Yet, research showed the majority were repeat users looking for specific materials to download.

Goal: Eliminate guesswork and streamline process of finding materials for frequent users and staff.

why are voluteers so hard to find? — Fig 1.(top) Existing global nav Fig 2. (bottom) Proposed global nav

How I identified the problem

Conducted background research on existing website navigation

Studied other NGO websites: Save the Children, Sonke Gender Justice, UN Women.

Interviewed Founders and staff

Created and tested new structure with users.

Interviews with Raising Voices Staff identified two core user groups: 1- Employees of non-governmental agencies in East Africa. 2-Funding/Grants managers living in the US. I focused on Persona 1 for this project and identified key tasks he/she would likely attempt on the website and tested those paths on the new architecture.

User persona for Nonprofit employee in East Africa — User persona for NGO employee in East Africa

user persona for grant funding manager in United States — User persona for grant manager in the US

Research showed that finding and downloading resource library items was the most important user task for Persona 1.

Process

Talking with staff, analyzing the existing information architecture, and learning about content laid a solid foundation for the project. Streamlining paths to the resource library became a major center of focus.

Listen

Hear about the goals, challenges and priorities of the Raising Voices website with the founder.

Learn

Conduct background research on the site structure and the structure of similar nonprofits.

process step number 3 in user experience design thinking: Analyzing data collected and turning into insights

Analyze

Analyze content and structure and rethink site navigation

process step number 4 in user experience design thinking: Creating. Sketches, wireframes, prototypes

Create

Create site map and test questions.

Test

Test sitemap navigation with tree tests and first click tests

Thirty one different names were used to label content within the resource library. Many names were similar and/or interchangeable. This naming convention prevented similar content items to be grouped, making search and retrieval more cumbersome for users.

Three different card sorts, interspersed with analysis and revision, were performed with users to arrive at a streamlined architecture. The last test shrank the global navigation to four categories. Task success improved, but more clarification was still needed.

Graphic showing the card sort process and how it affected the information architecture — Content labels used on website

ux survey results with volunteering responses — Navigations used on the first and second tree tests

Because staff mentioned that finding the SASA! toolkit was a frequent user action, I used it as a tree test scenario to gauge the architecture's success. Even after several changes and iterations, the task only had an 18% success rate with the existing architecture. More revisions and testing needed to be done.

Giving users more search filters to find specific items in the library was critical to its success.

Browsing resources by subject, type, and format would give visibility into the contents of the collection, ultimately educating users and helping them to find what they need.

Insights & Reflections

Working solo on such complex content and navigation made interpreting card sorts too subjective. Group brainstorming would have been ideal.
Streamlining global navigation into less abstract concepts would help users perform tasks faster.
Testing search filters with both important user groups for such specialized content would be essential.
More robust search features would, additionally, teach users the type of content available and how to find it.
Adding a robust database system for resource materials would expand search options and findability. Unfortunately, this was out of scope for this project.
Testing navigation with users in Uganda and the US could generate insights about global use.
Grouping resource materials into fewer buckets would make the search process more intuitive.