I conducted an UX audit and provided several solutions based on their budget and impact on solving the problem.
MCIS was funded by the Canadian government to provide an online training module for awareness on human trafficking. They had outsourced the web design and development with it’s key goal of being informative. The site had some issues, as they were receiving 10-16 calls per week to inquire how to register for the program: increasing the customer support team’s workload and costing the business $150 per week.
Dusan A. - Stakeholder
2 Weeks
Their goal is to help the public become sufficiently informed about the dynamics of human trafficking and actionable steps they can take. The training includes tailored modules specific to the needs of the industry: legal professionals, law enforcement officers, healthcare professionals, and professionals working with children.
There are about 3000 people a year who undergo the online training.
Prototype: Redesign
The goal of the website is to provide information about the training program, what to expect, and how to register. But according to the customer success team, and user surveys, it was difficult to get to the registration page.
Furthermore, the satisfaction level ‘Excellent’ doesn’t reach the goal of 75% as intended in two areas.
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“Where do I go to register?”
“I don’t understand the instructions; they’re too long; I keep having to go back and search which step i’m on.”
I first approached this by doing a hybrid hierarchical task and content analysis (HTA). I wanted to understand and document each step towards task completion to learn how and where people are having difficulties, and possibly dropping off.
The user flow is illustrated below.
Broken links redirecting users to previous or incorrect pages.
Increased cognitive complexity; users needing to learn how to register, and excess content information.
Content order didn’t quite make sense; increasing cognitive complexity for screen readers.
I’ve provided several solutions and applied a prioritization framework for MCIS to work within their available budget. Overall, the site is designed to be simple, and more accessible by straightforward navigation and easier content comprehension.
Editing the copy and directing the user to the right pages - thought its not enough. Users should be better informed what action to take, and easily know how to take that action.
Incorrect use of text link and inaccessible:
For users who use a screen reader, they would have to listen to: “To take the training, please go to: <text-link> URL CODE http://training.helpingtraffickedpersons.org/<text-link>”
Changed text link into a button for better identification.
Labeled the button to better inform the user of the following page.
Using the information from the stakeholders on what’s needed for users to complete the task, and the user feedback, I created and used the ideal hierarchical task analysis to reorganize and edit content for easier comprehension and faster task completion.
The ideal HTA consisted of 10 steps in comparison to the current HTA with 15 steps. The biggest difference was noticed when the user was tasked with learning the instructions on how to register.
The drop down menu has been expanded into the navigation bar for better accessibility to all pages. Renamed the tabs to better inform users what to expect in the following pages.
Log in button located in the top right navigation bar for current users to access the external portal.
Considering the user goal to learn about the program and how to register. Users are presented with a clear call to action, and clear content layout.
Log in button located in the top right navigation bar for current users to access the external portal.
Considering the instructions page had numerous unrelated steps to follow, it increased the users cognitive load by having to read all the instructions on how to register - presumably switching from different tabs.
The Instructions were then separated and grouped together in different categories for users to read and comprehend easier.
Images were provided to help with real time recognition of locating the login button to access the external portal.
Using Maze.co, I conducted two unmoderated tests with 8 participants each. Participants were given the same scenario and task used for the analysis and then asked follow up questions;
While both test had a 100% success rate, Prototype A had participants frustrated or confused why the instruction page existed. By including the instructions page, it increased the time to complete the task and the likelihood of error.
It's safe to assume that users will know how to create a new account once landing on the external portal as there was an average of 5 seconds time spent to find the registration button and 100% success rate.
The main problem the previous website had was with a text-link that lead the user to a different page than it was supposed to, leading the user to further explore the website and been looped into the same error. This error costed MCIS about $150/week ($600/month) by consuming the support team’s time on a simple task.
Stakeholders were hesitant to remove the instructions page because they believed it would help those that need it. Through testing, I was able to convince them that it was not needed and it may be the cause to their current problem. Of course, a separate page was still provided for the module instructions, but not how to register.
Writing a UX audit report that the clients can understand better. I had made the mistake of going too far into detail about the issues, and the recommendations that it confused the client. It was preferred to provide a simplified version of the issues and recommendations (with reasoning behind the design decisions).
Designing for accessibility from the start and providing annotations had help me to create a better content structure. This would also help create a cleaner code and faster development by reducing the need to revisit the code for further implementation.
