Young Entrepreneurship Leadership Launchpad (YELL) is a registered Canadian charity that works with the public education system in Canada. YELL programs help students to transition into their lives after school by mentoring leadership and entrepreneurship skills. My role was to research, design, test the full UX activities and assist in UI activities related to this project. I collaborated with two UX Designers and a UI Designer.
Client
Young Entrepreneurship Leadership Launchpad (YELL)
Duration
3 Weeks
PLATFORMS
Web (Desktop, Mobile)
Team Members
UX Designers: Joseph Lee (me), Aaron Cumming, Aaron Gygie
UI Designers: Liam McCullough
Responsibilities
Reorganize the information architecture and redesign YELL’s website to increase sign ups.
DESIGN TOOLS & METHODS USED
Heuristic Analysis, Content Audit, Survey, User Interviews, Customer Journey Map, Competitive & Comparative Analysis, Affinity Diagram, User Personas, Storyboard, Information Architecture, Feature Prioritization, Dotmocracy, Card Sorting, Sitemap, Design Studio, User Testing, Paper & Digital Wireframes (Sketch), Clickable Prototype (InVision)
Design Process Highlights
User Journey Map
To get a better idea of what our team needed to improve on, we mapped out the current website experience of potential YELL students. We identified the core pain points and had key takeaways that we addressed in our design:
- Clear call-to-action (CTA) to help users navigate through the website and sign up
- Progressive disclosure by revealing relevant content effectively
- Minimize abandonment by allowing users to complete the task without having to leave the website.
Research
As our primary users were high school students, it was difficult to conduct research as we needed to undergo a criminal record check. With the three-week timeline to deliver a redesigned website, it challenged our team to get creative in gathering relevant information without losing validity and reliability.
Our team gathered data by analyzing YELL’s annual report, conducting surveys and interviewing users. We were wary of any possible bias as the annual report was produced by our client and we validated or refuted the statements throughout our own research.
Information Architecture
To capture a wide range of target users, our team utilized various UX methods. We began by identifying the desired features from each user’s perspective. Then, we did a series of card sorting exercises to determine which information the users perceived to be relevant when looking to get involved at YELL. Taking the information identified in the card sorting and the feature prioritization exercise, we categorized the elements into our sitemap.
This process allowed us to present relevant information to the users and it helped us to identify the elements needed to be implemented in our design to create a better user experience.
