ACRES: non-profit organisation
Animal Concerns Research and Education Society
ACRES (Animal Concerns Research and Education Society), is a registered charity and Institution of Public Character (IPC), founded by Singaporeans in 2001. ACRES is an animal protection organization, driven by their concern for animals. They adopt research projects on the use of animals in various fields. Research findings are then used to educate the public to promote active community involvement in the animal protection movement, as well as strive towards synergistic partnerships with authorities and related parties.
SCOPE
Responsive website
Content strategy​
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ROLE
Business strategy
UX strategy
UX research
UI design
Copywriting
Service design
Problem
The current website for ACRES is not well optimized for visitors and it is not generating enough traffic and site revenues. We are tasked to redesign the website of ACRES, while keeping in mind the target audience and the purpose of the website. We are required to design a responsive website prototype, content & UX strategy as well as a usability report on the overall performance of the existing site against the new one.
Our process
The diagram below illustrates the entire process we took in two weeks from research to design to development. It documents the step by step process and what we did in each stage of the journey.
The research process
We must narrow down the key focus areas through research. Gathering our thoughts and toolkits, we drafted out our research process in 3 key phases.
Heuristics evaluation
A heuristics evaluation based on the LEMERS approach was conducted. In order to get a better understanding of the whole experience, it is vital that we also capture the experience on mobile. Here are some of the key findings:
Content audit
We map out the current site’s content, to have a better understanding of the breakdown of the site. It was not as intensive as we thought. This is mainly because the site wasn’t as deep and also the content was mainly spread across the site’s pages.
Client data validation through Co-creation
A meeting with the ACRES client was set up, and we met up with Anbu, the deputy chief executive of ACRES. In this co-creation exercise, we discussed several important aspects of the business. It was definitely a meaningful discussion both for my team and ACRES. We discuss about:
Business flow:
Business flow, plans, KPIs, value propositions, vendor relationships etc.
Current issues with the brand:
Public perception, the role of the organization, fundings etc.
Current issues and expectations for their online experience:
Website, mobile, social.
In-depth understanding of key major issues:
Donations, volunteering, corporate partnerships etc.
ACRES service delivery:
Design of user journeys, touchpoints, back-stage processes etc.
Co-creation session in ACRES office, with me in white shirt and my teammates JX and Tom.
In a co-creation exercise, it is not just about trying to work towards a goal with your client, it is how good you facilitate it to elicit the right information required for your project.
Insights gathered from ACRES
There was an urgent need to address these 3 key areas for ACRES.
Quantitative and Qualitative data
We did several rounds of interviews and collected both qualitative and quantitative data. There were really a lot of data compiled, but to cut to the chase, here are some of the important findings:
There were even conflicting findings like this one:
A web usability test for 3 participants was conducted and most could not complete the tasks.
The issues most users face can be categorised into these 4 areas:
User Persona and Customer Journey mapping
From here, we came out with the user personas for both Rachel and Kiran. The two personas were designed to illustrate two key issues we want to tackle: donations and volunteers. Both are indirectly a problem due to the general lack of awareness and poor content optimization within the site itself.
Rachel's customer journey map shows several potential challenges for volunteers.
Identifying opportunities and deciding key features
There were obviously way too many features to work on. Seeing that we only have a 2 weeks project timeline, we had to prioritise which features to work on.
Content strategy and new Information Architecture
With the new content strategy out, the new IA was created alongside with better understanding of the user flows where we will make prioritized changes to.
Business analysis of ACRES
Due to the nature of ACRES being a non-profit organization, we must understand the business from both the beneficiary perspective as well as the users.
Business analysis from the beneficiary's perspective
Business analysis from the visitors' perspective
Breaking down the problem and working out the solution
Tackling the problem from a wider perspective
Both the experience of volunteering and donating extends beyond the digital space and to better map out the process, it was important to see it from a macro level.
Service blueprint for volunteer process
Here, the service blueprint for volunteer process gives more clarity on the entire journey of a volunteer seeking to sign up with ACRES.
Translating service design into the volunteer process
Because the journey of a typical volunteer sign up is a part of the ACRES eco-system, copy changes were made for the different digital touchpoints outside of the web experience.
Moving into design
We proceed with the lo-fi prototype and did two rounds of user testings. Our second round of testing was significantly more successful than the first one. We timed the speed of how fast the users finished each task and realize a huge drop in getting the task done.
Finally, the ACRES web experience
