My Role:

UX Researcher, Content Strategist, UI Designer, Information Architect

Client:

The Free Book Buggie, Local Non-Profit

Exploring the Problem Space:

When our client came to us, they shared their passion for changing the world through books. Our design team had the chance to explore the opportunity space and learn how we could best help them do that. The goal of this project was to help better communicate The Free Book Buggies impact to help them gain more partners, increase donations, and continue to engage their volunteers.

In order to learn more about the non-profit space and the potential areas of improvement, we attended one of the Free Book Buggies donation events to see the organization in action. At their donation events, they bring hundreds of books and set them up for children to browse and take home. 

Initial Research

Now that we had a good understanding of the opportunity space, it was time to dive into some research. I performed a competitive audit, comparing the current Free Book Buggie website to other non-profit websites that had a similar mission of giving books to children who need it most. The competitive audit helped me see what strategies other charities are utilizing that are effective, and in line with the current design trends.

Competitive Audit

Cognitive Walkthrough

After the competitive audit, I performed a cognitive walkthrough. I took on the role of a donor/volunteer and walked through the website to find potential pain points of users looking to donate and/or volunteer.

Information Architecture

After some initial research, we conducted benchmark testing of the current website to determine what’s working well and what areas could be improved. During the evaluations, we discovered that first and foremost, the navigation was very confusing to users, and they weren’t sure where to click next to reach their goals of volunteering or donating. In order to determine how to restructure the website’s navigation, our team conducted a card sorting activity with users in which they organized pages into categories that made the most sense to them. We got rid of the lengthy drop-down menus, and made the page titles more intuitive. The condensed navigation included in our comprehensive redesign was tested and proved successful in helping users of The Free Book Buggie find what they were looking for. 

Content Strategy

To round out the user research, we met with a member from the Mortenson Family Foundation - an organization identified by The Free Book Buggie as a philanthropic partner they wanted to connect with for a potential grant opportunity. This provided first-hand insight. We learned specifics of what their foundation looks for, which coincided with information that the other users sought as well. 

Information stakeholders need:

• Clearly stated mission and vision 

• Who runs the nonprofit

• Who they partnered with

• How they impact the communities they serve

We would execute a content strategy that  clarified, highlighted and emphasized their story with thoughtfully implemented content and usability principles. In this proposed solution we toe the line between playful and fun - which the client wanted to maintain - as well as credible and professional. 

On a high-level the content strategy included: 

• Updated style guide for consistency, as well as establishing a foundation to build upon if desired

• Refining the copy voice

• Increasing scannability by adding variety in the form of photos, quotes, metrics

• Surfacing key information such as volunteer sign up for events

• Reducing the amount of forms in half and making sure the information requested was applicable and relevant 

• Converting all call to action links from text to highly visible buttons

Design Recommendations

Homepage

About Us Page

Volunteer Page

Request/Drop Off Books Page

Additional Resources

Along with the website redesign there was an opportunity to add new content that met both users and business goals.

We provided email mockups for branded communications to coincide with user’s engagement with the site. This is one way they can keep the conversation going and add automation to their workflow.

The added communication touch points include: 

• A general welcome email 

• Book the Buggie confirmation 

• Thank you for donations

• Multiple Volunteer specific messages (Welcome, Event Sign Up Confirmation, Thank You.)
  

Communication Flow Mock-Ups

Parent Resource Mock-Ups

New content also included Parent Resources, which was implemented to showcase how The Free Book Buggie is dedicated to educating the community about the importance of literacy, and providing resources for parents and guardians.

Meeting Our Goals, User Evaluations

User evaluations of the newly implemented site that our design team created showed that we had successfully reached our goals of demonstrating The Free Book Buggies impact, while improving the experience for all users spanning from Donors, Volunteers, and Partners. Below are images of some raw data collected from user evaluations of the new website, as well as a likert scale completed by a participant who evaluated our redesign against the current website.