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USER EXPERIENCE DESIGN     USER RESEARCH      ITERATIVE PROTOTYPING

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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.

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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.

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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

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Our 
Impact

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My
Design
Process


Discover
Phase


 

EXPLORING GIVEN TARGET USER

Given:

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We started with chalking out more details about given target user and created user personas for further reference.

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Primary Target User Segment

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Secondary Target User Segment


Research
Overview


 

PRIMARY RESEARCH

Interviews with 4 vision Deficient users & 1 Stakeholder

Here are some things we heard:

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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.

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Actual Button

Button as seen by a range of colourblind users

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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.

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Research
Outcome


 

FROM PRIMARY RESEARCH

Pain points in the user flow were identified.

Unmet needs were recognised

Unsaid wishes could be extrapolated

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.

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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:

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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

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Option C

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Option B

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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

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Before:

Inconsistent graphics and button made navigation difficult.

Now:

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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

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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:

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Text heavy How-To instructions on a Notion Page

Now:

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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

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Left to Right: Charly, Me! , Amanda & Taylor

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