Promoting Cultural Education
Through User-Friendly Design
Uncovered Causes of User Attrition
I conducted in-depth research aimed at finding opportunities to increase member engagement and decrease attrition on CulturexCo’s web and mobile interface.
Research Goals
Primary Goal:
Improve and reorganize the website's experience by understanding problems with the website’s information architecture.
Secondary Goals:
Research the main 'Culture School' feature in an attempt to understand potential causes for the lack of web traffic.
What did We Uncover
Our data synthesis revealed user desire for both cosmetic and functional changes to the website. Specifically, users expressed interest in adding a dedicated webpage for educators to assist with lesson planning on sensitive topics. Additionally, categories such as a Knowledge Bank for historical and geographical information were identified through card sorting. The prototype design highlighted the need for further iteration, particularly in addressing color scheme consistency and architecture issues.
UX Researcher
I orchestrated and directed a comprehensive research initiative, delving into users' needs and uncovered pain points associated with CulturexCo to unveil its information architecture issues. Employing Semi-Structured Interviews and a Card Sorting Activity, we probed deeply into the needs of users. To gauge the effectiveness of our prototype, meticulously crafted from our generative research, we executed a rigorous usability test.
My involvement spanned the entire research cycle, where I took the helm in conceptualizing the research plan, spearheading participant recruitment, orchestrating research sessions, and skillfully synthesizing and presenting impactful recommendations.
Teams
CulturexCo Research Team
CulturexCo Design Team
CulturexCo Development Team
CulturexCo Stakeholders (CEO and Vice President)
Women’s March January 2018
Where We Started
We find ourselves in a time and place where social justice movements have unequivocally showcased their necessity in propelling society forward.
The imperative to champion progressive social issues has always existed. However, in this digital age, we are fortunate to have platforms with global reach that facilitate the promotion of these significant values and ideals. So, how can we harness the potential of these platforms to effect meaningful change?
These were the questions that CulturexCo was established to tackle: How can we utilize a web platform as a resource to advance education on social movements?
Pride March June 2019
Research Problems
CulturexCo was a recently developed web and mobile platform launched in June of 2020. The purpose of the website is to provide educational resources and content pertaining to world cultures and education. Our Stakeholders, the company’s business team, came to us with two major problems.
The Culture School (website service dedicated to BIPOC education) experienced low web traffic despise analytics suggesting users were visiting the website's main page
Through Web analytic analysis all Call-to-Action buttons received minimal user-traction.
Research Goals
After deliberating with client stakeholders we defined both primary and secondary goals
Primary Goal:
Improve and reorganize the website's experience by improving the information architecture.
Secondary Goals:
Research on the 'Culture School' feature in an attempt to understand potential user pain points and needs
Generative Research
To begin our investigation we conducted generative research, to develop a deeper understanding of the pain points and needs current
website users experienced
Semi-Structured Interviews
The team conducted 10 user interviews with CulturexCo users, many of whom were educators.
Our research plan consisted of questions about their impressions of the current interface, their experiences using the website, and their perspectives on potential improvements.
Synthesis Results:
Through our data synthesis process, it became evident that users expressed interest not only in cosmetic enhancements of the website but also in functional changes, such as the addition of a dedicated section aimed at assisting educators with lesson planning, particularly in addressing sensitive topics with students. The consensus was that this addition would provide a more specific purpose to the website and target a need that many educators felt was not addressed elsewhere.
Our synthesis also confirmed our thoughts that a redesign of the website's information architecture would help enhance website learnability which we collectively decided to pursue.
Interview Sessions Infographics
Card Sort
During this activity, participants were tasked with categorizing specific website features into broader expected categories. The goal was to understand what users felt the intuitive web architecture structure looked like.
Synthesis Results:
Our synthesized results indicated that new categories could enhance the fluidity and user-friendliness of the website.
Notably, we uncovered the necessity of a "Knowledge Bank" category where users can access historical and geographical information, instead of having this information scattered throughout the website.
Figure 1: The Card Sort activity
Figure 2 : A newly defined Information Architecture (Credit: Chelsea Chisholm)
Based on synthesis and analysis of our generative findings I worked alongside CulturexCo’s design team to create a Wireframe architecture.
Evaluative Research
Based on the generative research results, our research team worked closely with the designers to help envision some designs that complimented our findings. We focused here on the mobile application.
Wireframe Design
The original design was a wireframe mockup solely including the information architecture adjustments, incorporating insights gleaned from the generative research phase. Based on this, the designers continued to iterate to develop a robust mobile and web prototype.
Figure 3: Example of the first Iteration of our Wireframe Design for Mobile (Credit: Chelsea Chisholm)
Usability Test
Utilizing the high-fidelity prototype design, we employed a heatmap Usability test to closely track user interactions with the prototype in a real-world context. Through this methodology, we were able to measure quantitative metrics such as time of task completion, error rate per task, and the location of errors through the heatmap results.
Synthesis Results:
Two major findings came from this research:
Users succeeded significantly more per task as the error rate was an average of 0.3 errors per task.
The errors that were committed were mainly committed around Call to Action buttons, allowing for more investigation in the location and structure of these buttons.
Figure 4: Example of a Heat Map from a User Test and the Before and After State (Credit: Chelsea Chisholm)
We presented our Evaluative Research findings to the Design Team and worked with both the design and development team to create a roadmap for continuous iteration based on our research results.
Link to Live Website
But, Where Do We Go From Here
CulturexCo was purposefully crafted with the mission of advancing society and enlightening individuals on pivotal cultural and social subjects, essential for fostering a more socially conscious world. As an integral member of our dedicated team, I keenly sensed the profound influence of our efforts in enhancing the interface's usability and accessibility for our users.
CulturexCo stands as a vital resource, and by placing a strong emphasis on usability, the platform is poised to deliver a human-centered educational experience, a pivotal component in championing anti-racist education.
Growth aside CulturexCo is and always will be an incredible resource to promote anti-racist education.
What I’ve Learned
I have learned thoroughly how to utilize UX methodologies and the ability to conduct research within the constraints of a Lean UX Sprint schedule, with diverse stakeholders (project managers, designers, and engineers) allowed for a nuanced usage of my UX strategy and research skills integral to the field.
As a UX researcher, I am confident that I have the necessary skills, experiences, and knowledge I’ve gained from this project into effective industry practices.