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UPSKILL PROJECT: MÉDECINS SANS FRONTIÈRES

I spent some time training with Peak XD and for the practical part of the course work we got to spend time working with Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) aka Doctors without Borders.

 

They came to Peak XD due to a lack of long term user engagement and were open to Peak leading/mentoring their students through the process of designing a better experience for their users.

Project: UX Design

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Credits: Peak XD Principal and Senior Consultant Tania Lang | Peak XD Coach & Senior Consultant Miranda Wee

Stage 01: Understand

Definition of the business concerns and goals, understanding target users and the general problem space.

Stage 02: Definition

Research and analysis; looking at the problem spaces and defining what they are.

Stage 03: Development

Taking what we know from stages 1 & 2 and creating testable designs based on insights and ideation.

Stage 04: Delivery

After testing designs and making iterations, we deliver solutions and recommendations alongside physical designs. 

  Stage 01: Understand  

Understanding the business needs

Business Problem

The MSF Australia website is not getting optimal long-term user engagement due to:

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Its complicated menu structure,  which means visitors have trouble finding the info they want

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A broadcast culture which bombards visitors with information & stories that they may not be interested in

3.

Unsatisfying user experiences that are causing early abandonment & a lack of continued engagement

Business Goal: Offer a website experience that encourages ongoing active engagement, informs visitors quickly and easily, and overall is an inclusive and enjoyable site to use.

Current & Target Users

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Group 01: Supporters

Ongoing supporters and One-off supporters

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Group 02: Recruits 

Field HR Applicants and Recruiters 

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Group 03: Information finders 

People who are looking for stories, information & materials from MSF

FOCUS IS ON THIS GROUP

  Stage 02: Definition  

Research planning & analysis

Research Objectives

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How to gain more long term engagement with MSF's current and potential users and better understand their user groups

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MSF wants to understand how the menu structure and IA could be improved.

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Understand what parts of the home page could be improved for a better and more engaging experience of all MSF users.

Hypothesis: We believe that with a more engaging home page design, intuitive menu and simplified IA restructure current/new supporters, HR recruits and new visitors (information finders) will engage more often for longer which will result in more ongoing/long term supporters and HR sign-ups.

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Research Techniques

Walk-throughs (“in the shoes”)

Interviews (Artifacts: personas + journey maps)

Competitive analysis

Chalk Mark (Interface design testing) 

Card sorting (Menu items and naming)

Tree Jack (Information Architecture) testing with users

Data collection + artefacts 

Our group conducted 15 interviews with a mixture of folks that fit into the User Group 1 – Supporters.

 

From the 3 interviews I conducted, alongside the information collected from the other 12, I created a persona and user journey.

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Qualitative data:
Insights from user research

Insights are based on the common themes found, competitor research, persona walk-throughs and group collaborations

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Give users a strong ‘call to action’

 

Display action-based imagery and human-focused story telling

 

Give numbers and financial figures where supporter’s donations are used

 

Make paid or volunteer work easy to find information on and the application process smooth

  Stage 03: Development  

Menu + information architecture

IA Card Sort

The group used an open card sort with about 30 participants to determine patterns around category names and where content on a website could be found.

Card Categories

Category 01: Donate/Donations/Donating/

Contributions/Donation

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Category 02:

Join MSF/Join Our Team/Recruitment/Interested in joining?/Join Us/Work with us/Working for MSF

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Category 03:

About Us About MSF/About Us/Countries we are working/The work we do/Coverage

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Category 04:

Our work/Detailed Information re MSF Activities/News and Stories

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Category 05:

News & information/Education Material & Latest News/Exposure

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Category 06:

Connect With MSF/Share MSF With Others/ Giving to others/My account/Personal Profile

Menu Names

SUPPORT US

GET INVOLVED

WHO WE ARE

NEWS, STORIES & RESOURCES

CONNECT

Wireframing the home page

Based on all the user research, I spent time redesigning the current home page with indicative wireframes to help show the client what my ideas were around improvement.

  Stage 04: Delivery  

Menu structure (proposed)

First and second level

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Page + Link structure (proposed)

First and second level

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Home page wireframe (proposed)

Option 02: Inspiration/Action led (Mid-fidelity)

Home page: Proposed redesign

Features that tested well in the proposed home page design

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A strong in-action image with positive message from on-field staff

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Project-specific money and people numbers

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3.

Having the Donate & Work with us buttons within the call to action

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4.

The downward flow from the landing into the about section

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Having the socials quite close to the top 

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Calling out the urgently needed staff made users feel the need to quickly check if they could help

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Users liked that the donate section is below the work with us section (made it feel like less of 'money emphasis')

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Having other ways you can help right near the giving money part

What I learned: Considering this was an intensive UX Course - I learned A LOT! It was refreshing to be able to bring the design back to data-based decisions over opinion-based ones.

I was able to develop my user interviewing and data analysis skills, create meaningful user journeys alongside deep dives into the more technical aspects of experience design with user stories, flows, information architecture, heuristics and accessibility.   

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