Overview
Mr Banturaki Benard contacted UX Rescue in May 2020 seeking support to for his organization “Real Agency for Community Development”. The organization focuses on community development projects, such as micro-financing, civic education, reproductive rights and poverty relief.
The organization started in October 2007 with the aim of creating sustainable income generating activities for the poor, and sensitizing people about HIV/AIDS. Later, the scopes of work expanded and prompted promotion to NGO status.
Their website has two main functions: 1) Display the organization’s work, 2) Attract volunteers and donors.
GOAL: To overhaul the website of Uganda-based non-profit organization, Real Action for Community Development (RACD), that impacts the lives of more than 5000 youngsters in several village clusters. Attract volunteers and donors from all over the world to their website which they are unable to do at present.
MY ROLE: Audit the existing content, create new user flows synthesizing volunteer & donor insights & design wireframes and prototypes.
TEAM: 4 persons- Myself, another designer, 2 Researchers , 1 PM
DURATION: 4-5 months
Roadmap
The team of 4 of us embarked on the project with an ambitious goal, by laying out a 7-stage roadmap for the end-to-end process for redesigning the RACD website.
Problem
Real Action Community Development's domain was about to expire in January 2021. The NGO was unable to attract any international volunteers to its website. Most donations that they receive are from organizational grants, but they wanted to attract individual donors too. Our problem statement was, 'How might we display the organization's activities and existing volunteer experiences through the website in order to attract individual volunteers and donors from around the globe?'
Solution
I led the design development for a prototype of the new website along with my fellow designer, Julio from Bolivia. The prototype that we designed has now been passed on the client for review. Mr. Benard communicated to us that all they needed from us were prototypes which they can then get developed from their developer.
Research & Discovery
Content Audit
With the help of a website crawler called Screaming frog I was able to parse out any dead/broken links, external links, page errors unsafe or missing content. Next, I hierarchically listed out content per page while indicating recommendations for potential improvements.
Thematic Analysis
In order to pin down the essential features that we would absolutely need to have on the new RACD website, I went one step ahead of competitor analysis to cluster content from other non-profit websites based on their purpose. This type of content transgressing multiples thematic categories likely has the potential to reach a large audience by appealing to diverse ideologies and sensitivities. It also inspires confidence in volunteers/philanthropists to contribute to the cause. Of our interest were the features that make up this type of content. I listed these features on yellow sticky notes in each category.
Feature Prioritization
User Research
User Personas & Flows
The researchers on our team, Ario and Lauren conducted a thorough research and analysis of goals and needs of volunteers and donors who typically contribute to NGOs such as RACD in Africa. Jess and Flo tested competitor websites such as BRAC, Mercy Corps, Fistula with 5 users to determine what appeals to donors/volunteers and what doesn't. Julio and I then went on to sketch out user flows for volunteering and making a donation.
Ideation
Initial Sketches & Dot Voting
Content Organization & Re-branding
In the absence of a designated content strategist, I took it upon myself to sort out content clusters, re-phrase and rewrite copy and determine content hierarchy on pages with topical authority.
Mid-Fi Wireframes & A/B Testing
Hi-Fi Wireframes
