KATHY NI

Product Designer

Los Angeles, California

KATHY NI

Product Designer

Los Angeles, California

Refugee Artisan Initiative

Experience RAI's website evolution: compelling narratives, simplified browsing, and improved donation functionality. Our volunteer efforts focus on enabling refugee women to prosper in the greater Seattle area and create a lasting influence. This is a project of the UX design practicum course at the University of Washington.

Role

UX Research

UX Design

Prototyping

UX Research

UX Design

Prototyping

UX Research

UX Design

Prototyping

Timeline

Mar 2023 - Jun 2023

Collaborators

Supervisor: Stuart Gordon

2 UX designers

Supervisor: Stuart Gordon

2 UX designers

Supervisor: Stuart Gordon

2 UX designers

Challenge

The main challenges facing RAI include the need to balance engaging storytelling with less information on their website, transitioning from a product-centric platform to one that showcases artisans as the focal point while maintaining a cohesive look and feel, and finding effective fundraising strategies that support fair compensation for artisans and the organization's sustainability.

Outcome

Our group conducted extensive investigations into the organization's primary audience, along with a comprehensive heuristic assessment and competitive examination. We identified the website's key issues and offered practical solutions rooted in our study. We primarily restructured the site's information architecture, the front page, as well as the donation and volunteering functions.

My Contribution

As a vital team member, my main responsibility involved managing the comparative analysis, identifying and defining key obstacles to tackle, and actively engaging in the prototyping process. Additionally, I restructured the design system, significantly enhancing the overall presence.

Discover

Heuristic Evaluation

We conducted a comprehensive heuristic assessment of the website at the beginning of our research phase. Apparently, the initial website received quite low scores from all evaluation viewpoints, especially from the following perspectives.

Comparative Evaluation

RAI's marketing manager, also the overseer of our redesign endeavor, highlighted a few non-profit entities whose websites they truly admire, such as The Little Market, Gates Foundation, and Wing Luke Museum. Consequently, we carried out a comparative evaluation among these organizations, notwithstanding the absence of a direct competitive link.

Insights

Clearly depicted in the graphic, RAI's website has numerous shortcomings outshining the rest. We acknowledged the urgent requirement to refurbish their digital presence and strived to address as many issues as feasible.

Luckily, we gained valuable insights from The Little Market's easy-to-navigate layout, the Gate Foundation's approach to accessibility and inclusivity, and the museum's attractive multi-media offerings. These served as vital inspirations from the outset.

User Research Findings

It's crucial for designers to pinpoint accurate user groups and ascertain their objectives and frustrations regarding the targeted redesign subject.

Desk Research

Women represent almost half of the 244 million migrants and half of the 19.6 million refugees worldwide.

Women are often the first responders when crisis hits, yet their voices are often left out of policies that are designed to protect them.

In addition to poverty and other issues that all refugees may face, women refugees have an added layer of oppression from gender discrimination.

Refugee women could generate and contribute $1.4 trillion to the annual global GDP.

If we invested in economic opportunities for women refugees, we could help close gaps in poverty, gender equality, and inclusive work – all while helping economies on a local and global scale.

User Personna

From RAI's marketing manager, we learned about their target demographics, as well as current donors, volunteers, and partners. We promptly created three personas representing the primary user groups, recognizing their objectives and challenges.

Define

Problems

We started with the exploration stage and, gradually, effectively pinpointed the main problems on the RAI website. This procedure further highlighted the essential aspects to concentrate on for our revamp.

Repetition

"Website content redundancy causes confusion."

Accessibility Issues

"Accessibility problems hinder user experience."

Content Organization

"Homepage layout needs improvement."

Lack of Donation Records

"Donation metrics are not tracked or displayed."

Unclear Donation Process

"Donation process lacks clarity."

Inconsistent Link Behavior

"Links open inconsistently, affecting user experience."

Design Goals

Content Reorganization: Redesign the homepage layout and content structure to enhance user engagement and make it easier for users to find information.
Accessibility Enhancement: Implement design changes to improve accessibility, including addressing issues related to white space, color contrast, and clickable elements.
Donation Transparency: Establish a system to track and display donation metrics on the website to increase transparency and build trust with donors.
Simplified Donation Process: Streamline and simplify the donation process to make it more user-friendly, eliminating confusion and reducing friction for potential donors.

Ideate

Card Sorting

Since one of the primary problems with the website was identified as the information architecture, we chose to conduct an open card sorting exercise with 15 participants. Based on their feedback, we revamped the site map, greatly improving its navigability.

Before

After

Prototype

Homepage Iteration

The homepage holds paramount importance for every website since that's where visitors spend a majority of their time. To enhance RAI's narrative and highlight their key business and impact, we restructured the content and refined its visual presentation.

Donation & Support Feature Iteration

Through user research, we've found that RAI's primary source of funding is donations, making the donation and support functions crucial. Our goal is to make it simple for donors to locate the proper place to contribute and establish a record of their contributions to express our gratitude for their assistance.

Header & Footer Iteration

The initial header navigation and footer not only lacked user support, but were also aesthetically unattractive. We recognize their importance to users while navigating the site, and therefore opted to redesign them first.

Experience Prototype

Design System

RAI's site utilized a highly complex color scheme, leading to overwhelming and confusing visuals. Further, the lack of a consistent font size added to the chaos. I retained the main colors from their brand palette and revamped the typography by consulting Google's Material Design guidelines.

Next Steps

Given additional time, I would have revisited our design objectives and assessed any outstanding problems to address. I would have restructured the entire site to ensure cohesive user experiences.

Reflection

Occasionally, the stakeholder's objectives or viewpoints are unclear, and you must conduct further user research to navigate your team through ambiguity and strive to meet both user needs and stakeholder's concepts in tandem.

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