NAMI Central Texas Case Study
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The Challenge:
A course-based group project assigned to a client to resolve real-world problems. My group was assigned to NAMI Central Texas to restructure their website information architecture and make the navigation intuitive for the various user-types, and update the WordPress theme to reflect NAMI’s values of Calm, Safe, and Secure, over the course of 12-weeks. |
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The Team
My Role:
User Research Lead
Being the only person in our group of 4 to have taken the Design Research class at Austin Community College, I volunteered to stepped up to lead the user research for our team.
My responsibilities as lead user research designer on this team included:
Tools Utilized:
User Research Lead
Being the only person in our group of 4 to have taken the Design Research class at Austin Community College, I volunteered to stepped up to lead the user research for our team.
My responsibilities as lead user research designer on this team included:
- Mentoring my group members on various design research tools and methods
- Scheduling interviews with our client and users
- Creating and conducting tree-tests
- Moderating card-sorting sessions
- Analyzing research to make informed design decisions
Tools Utilized:
- User Interviews and Observation
- Tree-testing
- Card-sorting
- Feasibility chart (Analysis)
- Gloomaps (Information Architecture)
- Sketch
Reach out to me to schedule a presentation of this case study.
Problem Definition
Our clients at NAMI Austin had done a lot of generative research on their own, and felt a redesign was necessary because:
Because NAMI had found these problems through their own generative research, and we were working on a short timeline, I decided it was best to focus on validating these issues through evaluative research.
- They were receiving phone calls on a daily basis from their users regarding issues with navigating their website.
- They were rebranding to NAMI Central Texas and felt their website visual design was outdated and didn’t reflect their values of Calm, Safe, and Secure.
Because NAMI had found these problems through their own generative research, and we were working on a short timeline, I decided it was best to focus on validating these issues through evaluative research.
Original NAMI Austin home page:
Users of the NAMI Central Texas Website:
For this project, NAMI gave us access to their users whom fit into three personas: volunteers with NAMI, people who make donations to NAMI, or people who take classes offered by NAMI.
I conducted the majority of the user research with them, as well as with our stakeholders which include members of the board, the director of operations, and interns that work for NAMI.
I conducted the majority of the user research with them, as well as with our stakeholders which include members of the board, the director of operations, and interns that work for NAMI.
User Interviews: Approach
I created interviews with specific questions for each of the personas we identified earlier: volunteers, donors, and class participants. I also created interviews for our stakeholders and the interns that answer phones for NAMI.
Then I coordinated through NAMI to schedule time with 5 users, 3 stakeholders, and 3 interns for interviews in order to validate the website problems and discover any other pain-points that had been overlooked.
Then I coordinated through NAMI to schedule time with 5 users, 3 stakeholders, and 3 interns for interviews in order to validate the website problems and discover any other pain-points that had been overlooked.
User Interviews: Qualitative Research
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Research Validation and Discovery:
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NAMI Workshops, Classes, and Support Groups:
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Recurring Interview Answers from Users and Client:
I don’t understand these class names.”
“People call when they can’t find what they’re looking for on the website.”
“I didn’t know there’s a calendar!”
User Interviews: Learnings
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The most important thing I learned from doing user interviews was keeping users on track. Many times, users would branch off the topic of discussion to talk about something unrelated.
It was important to remain patient, let the user know they’ve been heard, and steer the conversation back to the question at hand. Using a voice recorder for the interviews proved to be valuable for keeping my attention on the user and staying present in the conversation. |
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Tree Test: Approach
Since NAMI had the problem of users calling in to get help locating programs or resources, I decided it would be best to conduct a tree test and see where users got lost in the navigation.
I setup the tree-test with a set of tasks for users to complete. The goal of these tasks was to see if the user can find the correct program or resource offered by NAMI and collect quantitative data on how users navigated the current website.
I setup the tree-test with a set of tasks for users to complete. The goal of these tasks was to see if the user can find the correct program or resource offered by NAMI and collect quantitative data on how users navigated the current website.
Tree Test: Quantitative Data
After making changes to the information architecture based on the collected research, my team member moderated another tree test using the original test to validate the changes we implemented on the NAMI Central Texas website. The tree-test task success rate went from 60% to 86%.
After making changes to the information architecture based on the collected research, my team member moderated another tree test using the original test to validate the changes we implemented on the NAMI Central Texas website. The tree-test task success rate went from 60% to 86%.
Tree Test: Learnings
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This was a great opportunity for me to educate my team on what a tree test is, how it works, and why it’s valuable. I was excited to share this tool with my team, however, I was met with many questions from my team that made it clear there was confusion on how the tree test works.
A tree-test seems obscure when viewing it as a third-party if you have no prior experience to building one or using one, and I could feel the doubts of my team on my shoulders as I answered their questions. I reassured them that after I finish building the tree test, I would run through practice sessions with them before sending it to users, so they can see how it works. Going through those practice runs together put them at ease of what I was doing, and why it was valuable for this case. |
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Card Sort: Approach
The Idea:
Card-sorting was conducted as a team in order to understand how the users of the NAMI website would organize the content of the website.
I did this in two rounds:
First, I ran an open card-sort, where I first presented the descriptions of the various classes, workshops, and support groups for our user to label with a new name (for example, we presented the description to the current NAMI class “NAMI Basics,” and asked the user to label that cards based on the description).
Then I set those cards aside, and ran a closed-card-sort where the user sorted the rest of the cards into a hierarchy, and added the close they labelled into the hierarchy they created.
Card-sorting was conducted as a team in order to understand how the users of the NAMI website would organize the content of the website.
I did this in two rounds:
First, I ran an open card-sort, where I first presented the descriptions of the various classes, workshops, and support groups for our user to label with a new name (for example, we presented the description to the current NAMI class “NAMI Basics,” and asked the user to label that cards based on the description).
Then I set those cards aside, and ran a closed-card-sort where the user sorted the rest of the cards into a hierarchy, and added the close they labelled into the hierarchy they created.
The Reality:
Before the card-sorting sessions at the NAMI office, it became apparent that there was some miscommunication. Some of my team members hadn’t made all of the cards required for our card-sorting session, so I worked with them for about an hour writing up the rest of our cards. This made us run behind by about 20 minutes for our first card-sorting session.
During the card-sorting sessions, users would stop frequently to make sure they were “doing it right.” They seemed confused about the process.
By the end of our card-sorting sessions, I realized we had way too many cards, causing the team to feel overwhelmed when making the cards, and causing the user to feel overwhelmed with sorting them. There were also many duplicate cards there were unnecessary, and the descriptions that were written were long and confusing.
Before the card-sorting sessions at the NAMI office, it became apparent that there was some miscommunication. Some of my team members hadn’t made all of the cards required for our card-sorting session, so I worked with them for about an hour writing up the rest of our cards. This made us run behind by about 20 minutes for our first card-sorting session.
During the card-sorting sessions, users would stop frequently to make sure they were “doing it right.” They seemed confused about the process.
By the end of our card-sorting sessions, I realized we had way too many cards, causing the team to feel overwhelmed when making the cards, and causing the user to feel overwhelmed with sorting them. There were also many duplicate cards there were unnecessary, and the descriptions that were written were long and confusing.
The Discovery:
Despite all the pitfalls we ran into, we did learn how our users approached the website from a task and role centered approach:
Despite all the pitfalls we ran into, we did learn how our users approached the website from a task and role centered approach:
- “I’m a [parent, teacher, spouse]
- I need [education, resources, help]
- For [me, a friend, a student]”
Card Sort: Learnings
What I'll do differently next time:
1. Prepare
1. Prepare
- Prepare ALL of our cards ahead of time on a digital platform, such as Optimal Workshop.
- Regroup ahead of time to make sure we had all of the cards we need.
- Run through practice sessions with each other to learn card-sorting best practices, and align on how we want to conduct our card-sorting sessions.
- Do we need all of these cards? Can we omit any? Are there any duplicates?
- Can we re-word this description more concisely?
- What is our goal with these card-sorting session?
Results
The design went live within a month of our deadline. We were hoping to have it ready by the beginning of May 2019 for Mental Health Month, but due to the timing of deliverables and limitations of the volunteer developer, the website launch date was closer to June 2019. We lost our opportunity to see the spike in users during May, Mental Health Month, however, the feedback we received after the launch in June made our success even more pronounced.
The design went live within a month of our deadline. We were hoping to have it ready by the beginning of May 2019 for Mental Health Month, but due to the timing of deliverables and limitations of the volunteer developer, the website launch date was closer to June 2019. We lost our opportunity to see the spike in users during May, Mental Health Month, however, the feedback we received after the launch in June made our success even more pronounced.
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Before:
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After:
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Impacts:
Email from the Director of Operations at NAMI Central Texas
"Hi all,
I just wanted to follow up with y'all now that we have officially changed our name and launched our new site. We had a recent success story I wanted to share:
Earlier this week, one of our program coordinators decided to use the website instead of a powerpoint that she had previously developed for a virtual volunteer info session. After the session, she said it was way easier to navigate the new website (and made more sense for folks on the call) than the powerpoint she used to use.
Email from the Director of Operations at NAMI Central Texas
"Hi all,
I just wanted to follow up with y'all now that we have officially changed our name and launched our new site. We had a recent success story I wanted to share:
Earlier this week, one of our program coordinators decided to use the website instead of a powerpoint that she had previously developed for a virtual volunteer info session. After the session, she said it was way easier to navigate the new website (and made more sense for folks on the call) than the powerpoint she used to use.
We also received 3 volunteer applications right after the info session, which is unheard of!”
Thank you again for your work on this!"
Katrina Anaya
Director of Operations at NAMI Central Texas
Katrina Anaya
Director of Operations at NAMI Central Texas
Challenges:
- Different responsibilities and schedules made it a challenge to meet up to collaborate, get feedback, and make decisions on a regular basis.
- Not having worked together before, finding common ground when communicating made it tricky to effectively share our concerns and ideas with one another.
Overcoming Challenges:
We started out relying heavily on Slack to communicate our findings or get feedback. However, this ended up causing more stress to the team due to our differing schedules causing delays between responses and confusion among feedback/decisions
We started out relying heavily on Slack to communicate our findings or get feedback. However, this ended up causing more stress to the team due to our differing schedules causing delays between responses and confusion among feedback/decisions
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Our professor stepped in to help us structure our communication in a more effective way:
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Solving the Problem
After validating and collecting data, I synthesize the collected research through a feasibility chart with the team in order to brainstorm a design solution that addresses these problems.
I decided to take a task and role center approach to the new navigation of the website. Once I came up with a new navigation structure for the website using Gloomaps, my team member moderated another tree-test to compare the results to our first tree-test.
Retrospective
Things that went well include:
Things that didn’t go well include:
Next time I will be more proactive in learning about research methods more in-depth, effectively sharing these research methods with my team through practice runs, and do my best to keep everyone on the same page.
I will continue to stay grounded in the work we’re doing, keep the goal and user needs in mind at all times, and reach out for feedback.
Lessons I learned include the importance of effective communication - misunderstanding was a big part of this project. Getting everyone into the team mindset is important - we’re all individuals working interdependently to accomplish the same goal.
- Staying on track
- Working through communication issues
- Delivering on time
Things that didn’t go well include:
- Communication (in the beginning)
- Feeling unprepared during card-sorting
- A lack of team spirit in the initial stages of the project
Next time I will be more proactive in learning about research methods more in-depth, effectively sharing these research methods with my team through practice runs, and do my best to keep everyone on the same page.
I will continue to stay grounded in the work we’re doing, keep the goal and user needs in mind at all times, and reach out for feedback.
Lessons I learned include the importance of effective communication - misunderstanding was a big part of this project. Getting everyone into the team mindset is important - we’re all individuals working interdependently to accomplish the same goal.