Empathizing with Users through UX Research
UX Research
My Role
UX Researcher
Responsibilities
Surveying and workshop facilitation
Stakeholders
UX CEO, Content team, and Marketing team Designer
Client
Exceptional Lives
Project Timeline
Aug - Oct 2022
Methods
User scenarios, Survey, and Workshop
Tools
Zoom and Google forms
Problem
Research Objective
Our research aimed to test the taxonomy and foster empathy within the team by encouraging them to put themselves in the shoes of our users.
Planning
Findings and Impact
The people who were deciding how the information was being presented on our website didn’t have an understanding of the mental models that users were trying to use to navigate it.
Below is an illustration of the website’s current taxonomy:
Process
01
The website's design is cluttered, with too much information on each page and an overall lack of visual hierarchy.
Survey Quotes
“Too many options on landing page, I didn't know where to start.”
“There is a lot of clicking required.”
IMPACT
01
The survey was so effective it became the model we used to do research with our Family Feedback Team.
“I found helpful info immediately, and with each click there was more. A LOT... didn't know where to click next, but just chose links that stood out for my personal purposes.”
02
A new strategy for content development was created.
05
Website was redesigned.
After
Facilitation
After the survey, I led a one-hour group workshop to discuss our experiences and findings.
03
New users may find navigating the website confusing.
“We have a very location based focus in the top menu, more than topical for our main resources. We then have the RD, blogs, webinar- again, this is not topical. I'm not likely to come to the site to look for a medium, I'm coming with a topic/question.”
“For someone with no knowledge of our website, it was very confusing.”
“Wow, do we ever make it hard for people to find what they need!”
03
We developed relationships with families.
04
Obtained more funding to support more user friendly resources.
Website Redesign
Before
Distribution
I deployed a survey using Google Forms to our nine team members, giving each of them 15-20 minutes to complete it.
02
The website has pages with long, unformatted text, leading to information overload.
I developed a survey with scenarios and tasks to prompt the team to empathize with users.