Overview
Role: UX Specialist
Industry: Retail and Services
Category: UX Research
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Methodology: Modified Lean UX
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Tools:
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Figma
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Miro
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Photoshop
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Illustrator
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WebAIM
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Google Analytics
Project Length: 4 months
Deliverables:
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Competitive Analysis
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Visual and Content Audits
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Accessibility Audit
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Personas
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Usability Testing
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System Usability Scale (SUS)
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Card Sorting
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Team Members:
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Jake Bendel (Account Manager)
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Muhammad Bilal (UX Specialist)
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Megan Daley (Project Manager)
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George Kalantzis (VP of Experience Design)
Project Introduction
Goodwill of North Georgia (GNG), part of Goodwill Industries International Inc. is a nonprofit organization that helps people find jobs, provides job training, and resources to people who may have barriers. They hire veterans, individuals with a lack of education and job experience, and people who may face other employment challenges.
Goodwill of North Georgia has three websites that they wanted us to conduct user research on. The end goal was to provide insights on how user experience on these websites could be improved. Their three website properties were:
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Goodwill of North Georgia – goodwillng.org
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Goodwill of North Georgia Donation Tracker – gwdonate.org
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Career Connector – careerconnector.org
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The first property, goodwillng.org, was the parent site that helped users find the other two properties. The website is used to gain information about Goodwill of North Georgia, find their locations and contact information, look up items they accept as donations, make a monetary donation, and find a career with them or their partners.
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The second property, gwdonate.org, is a donation tracker website. It allows users to keep track of all the donations they have made. During tax season, they can get a receipt for all their donations, helping them with tax deductions or tax write-offs. Each time a user donates, they can leverage their account to add the new donation record, and to have a complete audit trail of all their donations in one place.
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The third property, careerconnector.org, serves as a direct way for Goodwill of North Georgia to accomplish their mission, which is “to put people to work”. Career Connector is a job board that helps people find jobs and careers, while also helping them train and gain skills to qualify for a variety of jobs. The site aims to supplement services provided at Goodwill career center locations in Georgia.
Problem Statement
Goodwill of North Georgia wanted to create a user centered website design, with content presentation and navigation effectively communicating Goodwill of North Georgia's mission and services beyond thrift store operations. They wanted to do so by addressing user preferences, concerns, and suggestions.
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Primary Concerns
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Challenge in effectively communicating its mission beyond thrift store operations, as users primarily associate the organization with shopping rather than job and career search.
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The client felt the current website's design and content presentation needed to be more user centered.
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Users faced difficulties in locating social media accounts due to inconspicuous icons, encounter mixed messaging regarding online sales, and desired better content formatting for readability.
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Mobile website navigation and nomenclature in the navigation menu require redesign to enhance readability and usability.
Research Process
The research was done using Lean UX methodology and the project was divided into three Sprints. Lean UX is a design approach that emphasizes reducing waste and increasing the efficiency of the design process. It is derived from the principles of Lean and Agile methodologies and focuses on delivering value to the user as quickly as possible while minimizing unnecessary work and resources.
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Sprint 1 – Auditing
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Competitive Analysis
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Visual and UI Audits
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Content Analysis
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Accessibility Audit
Sprint 2 – User Research
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User Personas
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Empathy Maps
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Quantitative Research
Sprint 3 – Usability Testing
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User Testing
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System Usability Scale Survey
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Card Sorting
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The first Sprint dealt with conducting website and competitor audits for Goodwill of North Georgia. Website goals, architecture, experience, organization, visual features, and content of the competitors and Goodwill of North Georgia were reviewed in the competitive audit to compare the results with their competitors.
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The second Sprint revolves around exploring personas and finding their needs. We conducted working sessions with the Goodwill team to find their pain points and learn more about the users. We explored the motivation and goals of users, their attributes, information sources, and frustrations. We used all this information to develop personas who may use any of the Goodwill properties or in-person services. We also created empathy maps for all our users to better understand what they hear, see, do, and think.
The final and third Sprint was used to validate our results using usability testing. We conducted a total of 10 user tests each of which was an hour-long. Scripts were developed to maintain consistency across all tests. The information gained through these usability tests helps shape the final recommendations which were provided to Goodwill of North Georgia.
Homepages of all three websites
Sprint 1 – Auditing
In Sprint 1, which was focused on auditing, the team conducted several key activities to assess the then-current state of Goodwill of North Georgia's websites. These activities helped in identifying areas for improvement, gathering insights, and laying the groundwork for future research, design, and development work. The main components of this sprint were competitive analysis, visual and UI audits, content analysis, and accessibility audit.
Competitive Audit
A competitive audit helps us to understand the pros and cons of competitors. It aids in identifying strengths and weaknesses, and allows us to apply learnings to recommendations, testing, and setting the vision for experience design. The competitive set provided by Goodwill of North Georgia for this audit includes websites for the following organizations:
The Salvation Army
Goodwill of Dallas
Employ Georgia
The competitive audit focuses on the user experience of the three competitors mentioned above. To ensure we have the same information across each competitor, the audit was focused on the specific parts of the website. These include the following:
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company's background information
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information design
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site architecture and experience
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social media accounts and their use
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accessibility features
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competitive advantages and disadvantages.
Tools Used
Below are some of the tools used to collect and analyze information for this audit.
Site Performance Analyzer
Visual Contrast Analyzer
Accessibility and Site Structure Analysis
Analytics and Website Insights
Analytics and Marketing Research
Key Findings from Competitive Audit
The audit gave us valuable insights to shape our next steps and enhance our research and testing phases. We discovered that navigation plays a crucial role in helping users explore and find relevant information. While no site had perfect navigation, we can combine user-preferred options with best practices to recommend an effective and versatile navigation bar.
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We also found that consolidating similar categories of information into a single page with clear content hierarchy improves user access and promotes related content. To keep users engaged, it's important to design pages based on their goals and provide clear calls-to-action for next steps and accessing other services.
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Improving the search experience is essential for faster information retrieval and higher goal conversion. While some audited sites have a search feature, none make good use of modern search capabilities.
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Engaging user experiences, active social media presence, and customer support all contribute to keeping users informed and more likely to donate. Streamlining the donation process and showing appreciation for user contributions encourages regular donations. Lastly, combining the insights from this document with discovery sessions will guide us in setting up surveys and targeting the relevant audience.
Results at a Glance
The results of the competitive audit were put in a matrix for easier comparison between the different websites.
Competitive audit results matrix
Internal Audits
The internal audits were done on three of Goodwill of North Georgia’s properties namely goodwillng.org, gwdonate.org, and careerconnector.org. These were done to gain information and insights on the current websites and how they compare to Goodwill of North Georgia's competitors.
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Site 1 – goodwillng.org
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Visual and UI Audit
The site uses blue, white, and black colors. Some inconsistencies in page layouts and navigation can be improved. The homepage lacks a clear call-to-action (CTA) and important information such as contact details and social media links are missing or hard to find. The buttons, especially the 'Donate' button, need better contrast and should be more prominent.
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Content Audit
The copy could be more persuasive and the images need consistency. The language used throughout the site is too formal and the tone needs to be more welcoming and engaging. The images need to be more relevant, high-quality, and consistent in style and sizing.
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Types of User Assistance Available
The contact options can be improved for better visibility. The 'Contact Us' page needs to be more prominent and the phone number and email address should be displayed in the header or footer of the site.
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Accessibility Audit
Some videos lack closed captions and there are accessibility issues with color contrast and missing alt text. The site needs to improve its accessibility for users with disabilities, such as adding alternative text descriptions for images and videos, and ensuring that all text has sufficient contrast against the background color.
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Site 2 – gwdonate.org
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Visual and UI Audit
The site can benefit from modern web design practices and better use of colors. The site's color scheme is inconsistent and lacks visual appeal. The typography could be improved, especially in terms of font size and spacing. The site also needs more visual elements, such as icons and images, to make it more engaging and user-friendly.
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Content Audit
The content needs improvement in terms of branding and organization. The language used throughout the site is too formal and does not reflect the brand's personality. The content needs to be more organized and structured, and should follow a clear hierarchy and flow. The site also lacks a clear value proposition and does not explain the benefits of donating.
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Types of User Assistance Available
The site offers customer service and a video tutorial, but the FAQ page needs better organization. The site needs to improve its customer support options and make them more accessible and visible. The site also needs a better search function, and should provide users with more self-help resources.
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Site 3 – careerconnector.org
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Visual and UI Audit
The site uses a consistent color scheme and professional imagery. Contrast and readability can be improved. The site's typography needs improvement, especially in terms of font size and spacing. The site also needs more visual elements, such as icons and images, to make it more engaging and user-friendly.
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Content Audit
The content is motivational and instructional, but there are opportunities for better SEO optimization and content organization. The content needs to be more organized
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Types of User Assistance Available
Users may benefit from support-based tools during the pre-registration process which may include chat, email, phone, and FAQ support. Most social links redirect to Goodwill of North Georgia’s account. There are links to Google+ and Meetup, both of which are broken and need to be updated.
Sprint 2 – User Research
Personas
Personas are hypothetical users whose needs and aspirations represent those of a larger group of users. A persona consists of information like goals, skills, attributes, and behavior of a certain group of users. Personas are given fictional names and details to make them more realistic and help build empathy between users and the design team.
For the purpose of this project, we conducted working sessions with the Goodwill team over the course of two days to help build out the personas. We used a template to organize information that we collected from the Goodwill team and that helped us gain consistent and comparable information for all the personas. In addition to creating the personas, we created empathy maps based on research information and feedback the Goodwill team had received from their customers and users.
By the end of the discovery session, we had 6 personas who represented a wide variety of users overall the website properties of Goodwill of North Georgia. We also created an empathy map for each of them, helping us better understand their emotions and experience dealing with Goodwill of North Georgia. The six personas were as follows:
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Shopper (In-Store) — This persona represents customers who shop at Goodwill of North Georgia’s in-person store locations.
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Job Seeker — This persona represents those who are actively seeking employment.
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Job Trainee — These are individuals who want to broaden their skillset, helping them qualify for better-paying jobs.
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Existing Donor – These are people who consistently donate goods to Goodwill of North Georgia.
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New Donor – This persona represents people who want to donate to Goodwill of North Georgia for the very first time.
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Donor – This persona represents individuals who make monetary donations to Goodwill of North Georgia.
Example of a persona and an empathy map we made.
Quantitative Research
The personas we created helped us narrow the focus of our research and target them directly in the next steps. We used the information to create surveys that were specifically targeted to get feedback from one or a combination of personas, depending on the website we wanted to test. We created 3 surveys in total, one for each of Goodwill’s website properties.
Site 1 – goodwillng.org
Total Surveys Sent – 43310
Total Responses – 407
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Findings and Insights
• Most individuals who donate are well educated, falling under the age ranges 45-65+. Their household income falls in the $41k - $80k and above category.
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• Most users are aware of Goodwill of North Georgia’s mission to train people and provide them with jobs.
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• Users rated their experience with Goodwill of North Georgia’s website as very pleasant.
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• The primary reason people visit Goodwill of North Georgia’s website is to track donations, locate a store, find information regarding donations of goods, or to find items to shop.
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• Users found Goodwill of North Georgia’s websites through the receipt, from a search engine, or from family and friends.
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• Users like how easy it is to navigate the website and the content being easy to read.
• Just like users who donate goods, users who make a monetary donation do so once every few months.
• Users donate to Goodwill of North Georgia because they support Goodwill’s mission and because it is convenient.
• Users were able to shop using their preferred payment method and rated their shopping experience pleasant overall.
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Site 2 – gwdonate.org
Total Surveys Sent – 43643
Total Responses – 419
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Findings and Insights
• A majority of individuals who donate are well educated, falling under the age ranges 45-65+. Their household income falls in the $41k - $80k and above category.
• Most of the audience donates goods regularly but less than half of them register their donations on gwdonate.org.
• Individuals who donate were made aware of the donation tracking website through the receipt, followed by hearing from employees at a donation center, and through Goodwill of North Georgia’s website.
• An overwhelming number of users on the gwdonate.org website use it to track donations for tax purposes and some use it for keeping all their receipts organized in one location.
• Most people who donate to Goodwill of North Georgia register their donations on gwdonate.org every time they donate. Others donate once every few months or when they have a lot of receipts collected.
• Most users described their experience and the visuals on the website as very pleased with the content being very easy to understand.
• Users rarely ran into technical issues and tend not to refer to the FAQs page or
contact support.
• Most users are aware of the impact their donations have via the website.
• Some of the most liked features on the website include the following:
– Ease-of-Use
– Quick to Use
– Ability to print all donation receipts in one place for year-end report/taxes
– The ability to see the impact of donations
– Ease of entering information
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Site 3 – careerconnector.org
Total Surveys Sent – 9196
Total Responses – 16
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Findings and Insights
Please note: due to the lower response rate, the following findings are subjective and based on the experiences of a few people with the Career Connector website.
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• Users did not have a college degree but did go to some college.
• Users came to the website primarily to search for a job and complete training.
• A couple of users found the Career Connector through Goodwill of North Georgia’s website whereas one user found it via social media.
• Users rated their overall experience with the website as pleasant.
• Users typically visit the website from several times per week to a few times per year.
• Some of the other services that users utilize for their job search include LinkedIn
and Indeed.
• Users reach out to family or friends for help with resume building or use
online templates.
Sprint 3 – Usability Testing
Usability testing, also known as user testing, is like having a conversation with our users. It helps us understand how they interact with our system and if it meets their expectations. By directly involving users, we uncover valuable insights, discover opportunities, and gain a deeper understanding of their behavior and patterns.
Building upon the competitive audit and survey research, we conducted a comprehensive usability test study. This allowed us to dive deeper into the websites and their user interactions. The test involved 10 users across 3 websites, each following a tailored script. By using a script, we ensured consistency while still allowing for follow-up questions based on user responses.
Testing Methodology
We recruited participants who matched the personas we created in the previous sprint. This ensured a diverse range of users, including shoppers, donors, job seekers, and trainees. Due to the pandemic, the usability tests were conducted remotely using the Userlytics online testing platform.
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At the start of each test, we collected demographic information from the users to ensure they aligned with the personas and to gather data for analysis. The script was divided into three sections: introduction and consent overview, task-based scenarios, and activity-based scenarios. The introduction provided users with an overview of the test and what was expected of them. They were reminded to think aloud as they navigated the website and completed tasks.
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In the task-based scenarios, users were asked to interact with specific parts of the website that we wanted to test. These included the landing experience, registration process (if applicable), imagery/visuals, navigation, tools and resources, donations (if applicable), user assistance, and the mobile experience.
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After completing the task-based scenarios, users were asked to participate in two activity-based scenarios: the System Usability Scale (SUS) form and a card sorting activity.
Throughout the test, users were informed about the purpose of the study, the use of electronic notes, and the presence of live observers. They were assured that their personally identifying information would remain anonymous and that they had the freedom to withdraw from the study at any time.
Participants and Recruitment
Testing was conducted with a total of 9 participants that were used to test three of the websites with a variety of mobile and desktop testing. Each of the user testing sessions was an hour long and participants were asked to complete tasks based on the scripts.
Some participants were recruited directly by Goodwill of North Georgia whereas others were recruited through Userlytics. The participants recruited by Goodwill of North Georgia were given a $50 Amazon.com gift card to compensate testers for their time. Compensation for users recruited by Userlytics was handled by Userlytics themselves.
The following table gives an overview of the tests held, the website tested, as well as the type of device it was tested on.
Breakdown of all user tests conducted.
Key Findings – goodwillng.org
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• Most users associated Goodwill of North Georgia’s mission with shopping at thrift stores and not with job and career search.
• Users were able to quickly find Goodwill of North Georgia’s mission once they visited their website.
• The personalized imagery on the website was far more effective at conveying Goodwill of North Georgia’s messaging when compared to generic or stock images.
• Users preferred the navigation to be fixed at the top as they had to scroll down to access the subpages.
• Users struggled to find Goodwill of North Georgia’s social media accounts due to the lack of color used to distinguish the icons and because of the small size of the icons.
• Users found mixed messaging on items being sold online and it was also not obvious to users where they should click to access the online stores.
• Users wanted better content formatting with the increased use of headings and visuals to help make text-heavy pages more readable.
• The label “Donate Cash” created some confusion among users as they associated it with physical monetary donations in-store.
• Users wanted the navigation on the mobile website to be redesigned for better readability and usability.
• Overall, users were able to navigate the website easily but suggested changes to the nomenclature used in the navigation menu.
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Key Findings – gwdonate.org
• Users found the website to be visually outdated but effective at serving its purpose.
• Based on the information on the landing page, users were able to understand the purpose of the website.
• Users found the registration process unnecessarily long but otherwise considered it similar to what they have seen on other websites. They recommended consolidating and reorganizing the text fields on the registration page.
• Users found the impact calculator interesting and wanted to see it emphasized.
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Key Findings – careerconnector.org
• Users were visibly tired and frustrated due to the length of the registration process and wanted to reduce the length of the registration process significantly.
• Users were able to understand the website objective based on information available on the landing page.
• Users liked the use of professional images on the website and wanted to see the icons used on the landing page throughout the website.
• Users were not always certain about the purpose of some tools available through the website. They recommended renaming them to be more accurate.
• Users were unable to find contact and social media information on the website. They recommended having it in more traditional locations of the website like the footer.
• Users were able to find the live chat feature easily and preferred to use it over other forms of user assistance.
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System Usability Scale (SUS) Scores
The system usability scale provides quick insights into the usability of a website. The scores are on a scale of 0-100 and help differentiate usable and unusable systems. Please note that these scores are not percentages but a percentile ranking as the scores have been normalized. SUS is easy to administer and provides reliable results, especially with a small sample size. The SUS consists of 10 questions with five responses that range from Strongly Agree to Strongly Disagree.
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What are the questions asked on the SUS form?
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I think that I would like to use this website frequently.
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I found the website unnecessarily complex.
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I thought the website was easy to use.
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I think that I would need the support of a technical person to be able to use
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I found the various functions in this website were well integrated.
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I thought there was too much inconsistency in this website.
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I would imagine that most people would learn to use this website very quickly.
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I found the website very cumbersome to use.
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I felt very confident using the website.
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I needed to learn a lot of things before I could get going with this website.
How is the score calculated?
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For every odd-numbered question, subtract 1 from the score (X-1)
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For every even-numbered question, subtract the score from 5 (5-X)
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Sum the scores from even and odd-numbered questions. Then multiply the total
by 2.5.
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What do the scores mean?
SUS scores reference table
SUS score results
Average Score – 80
SUS scores for goodwillng.org
Average Score – 87.92
SUS scores for gwdonate.org
Card Sorting
Card sorting is used to determine how users perceive the structure of a website and help find an ideal way for users to navigate through the website. There are three kinds of card sorting; open, closed, and hybrid card sorting.
For this exercise, we conducted hybrid card sorting where a few categories were provided to users and the cards were predefined based on what’s found on the website. Users are free to create additional categories based on what they see fit. Open card sorting provides users with cards but they have to create their own categories. In closed card sorting, users are provided with both the categories and cards and they simply sort them into the appropriate categories.
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There were 21 cards that were presented to users. All these cards were shuffled and their order varied from user to user. The cards were as follows:
List of all cards that were provided to users
How did users sort the cards?
Some of the categories that two or more users created are as follows—
Additional cards that users made
Most common sorting for goodwillng.org:
Shop
Why Donate to Goodwill
Tax Deduction Information
Donation FAQs
Career FAQs
Our Services
Why Goodwill Industries
Blog
Donate
Items We Do/Don’t Accept
Donate Cash
Donation Tracker
Gift Cards
Shop Online
Shop FAQs
Locations
About
Volunteer
Training Program
Events for Job Seekers
Career Connector
Career Connector Registration
Success Stories
Find a Career Center
Job Training
Most common sorting for careerconnector.org:
Find a Job
Résumé/Job Search Portfolio
Job Search
Recently Viewed
My Resources
Career Center Calendars
My Calendar
My Career Center Event Locations
Video Gallery
Community Resources
Goals
Activity Tracker
My Career Goals
Career Pathways
Site-Specific
(User was unsure about the label)
Let’s Get Started
Career Connector Registration
Badges
FAQs
Skills Development
Unused Cards
Job Search Prep
Learning Modules
Articles
Virtual Career Coach
Assessments
External Assessments
Project Challenges
There were multiple challenges that my team and I faced while completing this project. this project was completed within just four months and a lot of effort was put into making recommendations based primarily on research that was done.
Because of the pandemic, we had to all work remotely and conduct the user tests remotely as well. This was new and something I had not done before. My team and I explored different tools that helped us conduct these user tests remotely and landed on working with Userlytics. A few of the user tests did have technical issues but we were able to work around those and complete the tests.
I find working from home a lot more challenging because it is easy to mix personal life with work. To overcome this, I had to create a strict schedule to ensure I did not mix the two and was getting enough downtime, so I do not burnout.
Our project manager moved to a different company towards the end of the project which affected communication between the client and us. Luckily, the team worked together to ensure the gaps were filled and it does not affect the project significantly.
Because of internal reviews within the team, I would often find myself working overtime to ensure all feedback was implemented and we produced a quality document. Even though stressful, I learned how much time I should allocate for different parts of the project moving forward.
Takeaways
This project was completed in just 4 months and there were numerous huddles as mentioned in the above section that my team and I had to overcome. This project brought a new perspective to what a research project looked like and forced collaboration between team members. Throughout the process, I had to ensure the results were accurate and free of personal bias. I wanted to ensure all recommendations and insights are based on facts and research data which were collected throughout the timeline of this project.
It was important to develop a good strategy and define the approach early into the project. This helped me know exactly what the next steps were and prepare for them in advance when I had some downtime. Working on multiple websites at once and for the same client was something different and new for me. There were times when I was working on multiple parts of the project simultaneously and it really reinforced my multi-tasking skills.
Because the three websites served different types of personas, careful consideration had to be made on what features needed to be tested. Each step of the project was built on the previous one and so it was important to occasionally refer to research that had already been done in the previous steps.
The client was very impressed with the attention to detail that we had put into this project and the comprehensiveness of all the research documents. They agreed to work with our team on future projects and shortly after decided to hire our services for implementing the recommendations from this project onto their websites. Check back in the future to see this research implemented into design work.
