USER EXPERIENCE DESIGN • USER RESEARCH • ITERATIVE PROTOTYPING
TEAM
Amanda Kochak
Taylor Speed
Charlotte Kobiella
(And Me!)
DURATION
4 weeks
ROLE
-
Ideation
-
User Research and Testing,
-
Wireframing,
-
Generating High Fidelity Mockups
-
Brand alignment and advancement
PROJECT TYPE
Client Design Sprint
How might we re-design accesSOS's web based emergency search tool for vision deficiency, inclusivity and brand alignment?
Prompt
The Client
INTRODUCING ACCESSOS
accesSOS helps individuals who are deaf/hard of hearing, have limited English proficiency or who are victims of domestic abuse, to contact 911 helplines through text messages (in areas where such a service is not provided by the State)
Project
Overview
PROBLEM INTRODUCTION
accesSOS reached out asking to explore re-designs for their web-based search tool (textto911.com) for accessibility and for improving user flow on the website.
EXISTING DESIGNS
According to research, the existing design looks grey to vision deficient users, isn't e-reader friendly & is inconsistent with accesSOS' brand.
OUR PROPOSED REDESIGN
According to research, the existing design looks grey to vision deficient users, isn't e-reader friendly & is inconsistent with accesSOS' brand.
Easy navigation to accesSOS’ page
Text based search tool incorporated with quick link to How-To guide
Map redesigned for vision deficient users.
Easy to follow How-To guide
Our
Impact
My
Design
Process
Discover
Phase
EXPLORING GIVEN TARGET USER
Given:
We started with chalking out more details about given target user and created user personas for further reference.
Primary Target User Segment
Secondary Target User Segment
Research
Overview
PRIMARY RESEARCH
Interviews with 4 vision Deficient users & 1 Stakeholder
Here are some things we heard:
SECONDARY RESEARCH
Exploring colour for inclusivity
We explored different colour schemes and map designs that might convey the right information succinctly to all users, including those who are colourblind.
Actual Button
Button as seen by a range of colourblind users
Benchmarking against popular map data visualization across industries
Mapping out Existing User Flow
Watching users walk through textto911.com helped us gauge what the user flow is on the page and how much it varies from the expected flow.
This helped us identify design opportunities through the steps.
Research
Outcome
FROM PRIMARY RESEARCH
Pain points in the user flow were identified.
Unmet needs were recognised
Unsaid wishes could be extrapolated
.
.
.
This gave us a user story to work with.
FROM SECONDARY RESEARCH
Secondary research helped us narrow down on the visual representation that would be the most effective tool in this case and points of intervention needed.
Define
Phase
INSIGHT GENERATION
The greys, greens and reds currently in use were difficult to differentiate between for colourblind users
Improved
Search Feature
Locating the search bar was difficult and the zoom feature was barely used
Clear Search Result
Colours for Colour Blindness
The existing How-To-Guide was too text heavy and difficult to access
How-To-Guide
There needed to be a clear indication of the search result
Unclear Navigation
It took users quite some time to navigate from accesSOS's home page to textto911.com
Define
Phase
INSIGHT GENERATION
The greys, greens and reds currently in use were difficult to differentiate between for colourblind users
Improved
Search Feature
Locating the search bar was difficult and the zoom feature was barely used
Clear Search Result
Colours for Colour Blindness
The existing How-To-Guide was too text heavy and difficult to access
How-To-Guide
There needed to be a clear indication of the search result
Unclear Navigation
Unaligned Branding
It took users quite some time to navigate from accesSOS'
home page to textto911.com
Users who arrived directly to textto911.com were unclear of accesSOS'
product offering
Project
Refinement
OVERVIEW
We concluded that the key design decisions would be largely split into two categories:
Problem
Reframing
How might we improve the user flow and visual design of accesSOS' web based emergency search tool for vision deficiency and brand alignment?
Prototyping
OVERVIEW
We brainstormed different options for page layout to understand what might be the best for a quicker and more intuitive search experience .
Option A
Option C
Option B
Option D
We decided to go for Option C based on stakeholder review and by prioritising the goals we set out to achieve from the re-design.
Development
HIGH FIDELITY PROTOTYPES
Improving Navigation From Home Page
Before:
Inconsistent graphics and button made navigation difficult.
Now:
Relevant graphic gives a much better visual indication of search tool and call to action is makes navigation easier
Text Based Search Experience in Addition to Inclusive Map Colours
Interestingly enough, testing proved that simplifying the map and using brand colours made it colour blind friendly!
Futher, we also decided to:
-
Include both visual and text based search options for older/visually challenged users
-
Include a navigation to accsSOS' product as a banner to the top of the page for ease of access
How-To-Guide Re-Vamped!
Before:
Text heavy How-To instructions on a Notion Page
Now:
Visual guide with step by step demonstration of how to text state provided text911 service on the same page
Rapid
Usability
Testing
We conducted another round of usability testing to check for design success. By comparison we saw that:
100%
Users found the new How-To guide easier to follow
Users were
90%
more likely to find accesSOS' product
180 seconds
Search time reduced on an average by
Stakeholder Presentation
Gabriel, the CEO of accesSOS was our point of contact throughout the project. She absolutely loved our delivered high fidelity prototypes and ideas.
In Gabriella's own words, our insights "felt like a breath of fresh air" and the designs have been submitted for build.
Watch this space for an update on the new website once it has been published and for future iterations!
Closing
Thoughts
WHAT DID I LEARN?
The most unique aspect of this project for me was working with users who were vision deficiency.
Facilitating accessible interviews with the sensitivity they require was my biggest learning from this project.
WHAT WAS THE HARDEST PART?
Since this was an academic project as well as an industry based project, I was also cognisant of facilitating my own leanrnings and growth while delivering client deliverables. In this I was greatly supported by both Gabriel (accesSOS's CEO) and my professor (James Reffel, Head of Design at Clever)
WHAT WOULD I DO WITH MORE TIME?
Be a part of the hand-off! I love seeing my projects come alive and with more time, I would have loved to lead collaboration between engineers and our design team to bring alive the webpage.
A Peak Into
Our Process
Left to Right: Charly, Me! , Amanda & Taylor