SP
“I want to be in charge of my own experience, when the websites send me to pages it wants me to see, I tend to pull away.” - Jack
The Art Center Website Re-Design
raised the base level user satisfaction from 20% to 80%
Year: 2023
Role: UI/ UX Designer
Tools: Figma, Miro, Wix
In pursuit of a more user-friendly and effective Community Art Center website, A/B Testing method was employed. This approach resulted in an enhanced navigation and significantly improved the task completion rate for our valued users.
Key transformations included:
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Redesigned landing page and donation page
*research indicated that donors are the primary users
of the website at this time
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Restructured website Information Architecture (IA)
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Improved copy of call to action (CTA) buttons
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Enhanced the overall User Interface (UI) Design
The Community Art Center, Inc. (CAC), is a non-profit deeply rooted in the the history of Cambridge, MA neighborhood for 86 -years.
It provides after school arts programs to K-12 age children and teenagers year round engaging and empowering them to elevate their voices to "transforms their lives, their neighborhood, and their worlds."
The website, despite its rich content, initially appeared overwhelming due to
lengthy copy, an extensive menu, and a confusing visual layout.
It also, faced challenges in effectively catering to a specific target audience, encompassing youth, parents, alumni, and donors among others.
Hypothesis
By simplify the website content, navigation, and establishing clear call to action buttons, the user will be enhanced increasing user engagement.
Generative Research
In the initial round of user research and testing revealed that donors were the primary visitors of the website. Based on this finding, the re-design was focused on improving the landing page and donation page prioritizing the path, and clarity of information the user needed to complete their desired task.
The initial round of user testing also revealed the following pain points, including:
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an un-engaging homepage
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an underutilized donation page
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cluttered layout with too much text
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lack of organization and hierarchy of information
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visual inconsistency in user interface
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static call-to-action buttons
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most importantly limited user traffic and engagement
Restructuring the Information Architecture (IA) and reimagining the user flow proved to be crucial steps in streamlining the design process, providing a deeper insights into user journey and information organization.
Landing Page Improvements
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Enhanced User Engagement:
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Added "Volunteer" and "Shop CAC" buttons next to "Donate Now."
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Optimized call to action button text.
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Impact Communication:
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Introduced an Impact section with key metrics.
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Simplified Navigation:
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Reduced menu sub-links from 20 to 10.
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Highlighted key homepage sections.
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UI Improvements:
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Improved layout, color scheme, and video integration for a better user experience.
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Version A
Version B
Donation Page Improvements
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Unified Contribution Access:
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Merged all contribution options onto a single user-friendly page.
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Added "Volunteer" Option:
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Introduced volunteering as a new contribution choice.
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Added the donation confirmation email pop-up:
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for acknowledgement of contribution and opportunity to subscribe to the newsletter
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Enhanced Page Structure:
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Improved page organization for clarity.
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Optimized Layout:
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Enhanced layout with gray backgrounds for better aesthetics and space utilization.
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Version A
Version B
Version B achieved an impressive 80% user satisfaction rate, a significant improvement from the baseline satisfaction level of 20% in Version A.
Here are the results of the A/B testing:
Into the Future
In this website redesign, we have embarked on a journey towards a more user-centric and efficient platform, providing a glimpse into an exciting future. Our decisions have been informed by extensive user research and strategic considerations, leading us to restructure information architecture, create new user flows, and implement clear UI improvements to enhance the overall user experience.
To continue this journey, we have identified key next steps:
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Implement Online Enrollment: Roll out the online enrollment system for school-age children to enhance parental engagement and streamline information access.
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Enhance Accessibility and Inclusion: Implement features to improve address language barriers making the website content more accessible to families from diverse linguistic backgrounds.
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Launch Student Work Gallery: Develop and launch an online student work gallery to showcase the center's impact on young artists and foster trust among our audience.
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Integrate Social Media: Incorporate a social media page for automatic community updates, simplifying website maintenance and ensuring our audience is kept informed effortlessly.
Our overarching long-term goal is to establish a sustainable, user-friendly platform that empowers all staff members, regardless of their web design experience, to effortlessly navigate and update the website. This commitment to a user-centric website that effectively balances organizational goals and user expectations will drive our journey toward designing an efficient and engaging website.
We have delivered the client a comprehensive project proposal outlining future improvements, impact, continued user testing and monitoring of the website, and timeline for an overall website design.
