Following the completion of the VCH-Simply Connect user research project, discussions had continued with VCH around the next steps in optimising their volunteer engagement digital solution.
From the outset it had been made clear that VCH were unlikely to have the resources (even with the awarding of a grant) to design and develop a bespoke platform based on the findings uncovered as part of the project. The likelihood in light of this remained switching to an alternative provider, and one of the stronger platforms which had emerged after completing a competitor analysis was Deedmob.
However, stronger did not necessarily equate to strong, as all of the providers analysed had exhibited notable usability flaws. In the case of Deedmob, the search and filter experience was particularly problematic, a considerable concern as this task had also created significant friction for users during the previous testing on the Simply Connect platform.
But what if this experience could be improved to address the wants and needs of VCH users? Could this strengthen the case for considering Deedmob as a viable option for VCH to explore further? An interesting challenge therefore arose…
Leveraging the findings from the VCH-Simply Connect research project, demonstrate how the search and filter experience could be optimised to meet the wants and needs of VCH users.
The deliverables from the project also need to equip VCH with design rationales and tangible assets that could be used as a basis for discussions with Deedmob going forward.
Deedmob had proven itself to be one of the more impressive providers that I had assessed as part of the competitor analysis. The Deedmob powered site which I reviewed, Get InVOLved Norfolk, immediately stood out against competitors due to its modern, fun and vibrant feel — qualities sorely missed on competitor sites, which often felt clunky, dated, cold, and somewhat transactional. This was clearly a testament to the Deedmob mission of ‘promoting opportunities’ to do good in a ‘much more engaging way’.
Of course, it was not only the visual design which contributed to this experience but also:
However, possibly falling victim to the halo effect, upon closer inspection of the site, and with my designer hat firmly on, it became increasingly apparent that despite well-intentioned efforts to incorporate modern trends and patterns into the design, they often missed the mark. Troublingly, these flaws were particularly evident in one key area...
Amongst Deedmob's mission values is the aim to make opportunities ‘radically easier to discover,’ a noteworthy ambition and one which, if achieved, could make it a standout solution in the volunteer engagement software market space.
With this in mind, it was particularly disappointing that the walkthrough unveiled shortcomings not only related to core usability aspects such as navigation and findability but also in several other areas that challenged key user experience design principles.
The outcome of having to overcome these challenges, in my assessment, resulted in an experience that fell somewhat short of this aim. Amongst the most pressing issues uncovered were:
Addressing the usability flaws identified in the design was of course imperative, but even more critical was how this would be done while fulfilling the needs and wants of VCH users.
I delved back into the data collected during the VCH – Simply Connect research project, homing in on the findings and insights gathered from the 10 usability tests conducted with the volunteer user group. This task aimed to re-focus my attention specifically on the user experiences and attitudes, both positive and negative, as users searched for volunteer opportunities.
As part of this approach, I revisited the affinity maps and rainbow spreadsheet created after the test sessions and considered different ways to further synthesise the data to support upcoming design decisions.
The VCH target audience comprised of diverse user profiles, which extended beyond demographic characteristics like age, gender, and employment status. Variations in attitudes and behaviours regarding motivations for volunteering, preferences for types of opportunities, and familiarity with practical aspects of volunteering were also evident. Based on this, there were also varying preferences in what users sought in a search and filter experience.
For this reason, I decided to create 4 user personas, which I would use as empathetic reference points to help inform the redesign of the Deedmob search and filter experience to meet the needs of VCH users.
I only invested minimal time in reviewing the assets produced from the competitor analysis conducted as part of the user research project. This decision was influenced by the awareness that Deedmob's search functionality ranked relatively higher compared to competitors, despite its own shortcomings. With that being said, I was still able to glean a few key takeaways from this process that could serve as sources of inspiration when ideating on the redesign.
Preferring not to conclude this stage solely based on my initial findings, I felt it could be beneficial to broaden the scope of the competitor analysis, beyond the boarders of the UK, with the hope that dedicating time to this process would provide a broader perspective for inspiration and understanding.
An analysis of these 4 platforms revealed a series of promising patterns that addressed friction within the Deedmob search user journey, which I collected as screenshots to act as reference points when ideating.
However, upon completing this process I still had some lingering doubts around whether my analysis of solutions in a market space still striving for a certain level of design maturity would provide the best benchmarks to aspire to. Therefore, before proceeding any further, I decided to explore one final avenue, hoping it would provide the depth of insights and practical guidance that could take the redesign to the next level.
I had been troubled by a particular thought throughout my assessment of competitor volunteer engagement solutions that I now confronted directly once again — Why did volunteer engagement digital solutions so often diverge from established design patterns commonly found on job boards?
It seemed that the teams designing volunteer engagement platforms were often experimenting with unconventional approaches, perhaps in pursuit of uniqueness. However, these efforts frequently resulted in a plethora of usability issues rather than innovative designs.
Recognising the potential in taking a different approach, one more closely aligned with Jacobs’ Law, I decided to prioritise familiarity in redesigning Deedmob's search user journey. To inform this process, I embarked on a benchmarking exercise, seeking to identify and analyse the standards, best practices, and common design patterns used by job boards to guide users through the search experience.
Completing the review left me with several ideas on how to incorporate certain patterns utilised by job boards into the Deedmob design. I was confident that if done so effectively, it would not only greatly improve the search and filter experience but also provide Deedmob a competitive edge in the market space.
A key takeaway from the comparative analysis and benchmarking exercises was that many of the sites ensured that the fundamental task, of being able to search for volunteer/job opportunities, was displayed prominently as soon as a user landed on the homepage.
Within the current design on the Get InVOLved Norfolk site, the steps a user is required to go through to reach the search feature after landing on the site felt unnecessarily longwinded, with a lack of visibility and ambiguous terminology also not helping.
It seemed like a logical decision to address this issue by following the established pattern used by a number of credible sites and elevate the search feature to the homepage.
I had been conscious throughout the design process that, although there were notable similarities between Simply Connect and Deedmob as volunteer engagement platforms, it was paramount to gather user feedback on my suggested enhancements of the Deedmob search and filter experience.
It was now, at this juncture, that I felt it would be most advantageous to conduct user testing. Having addressed the usability flaws in the current design by applying learnings and insights gathered from VCH users, as well as adhering to usability principles and established design patterns, I hoped that the upcoming round of testing would focus on validating the design choices made and allow for fine-tuning rather than extensive changes.
The concept of anything ‘radical’ in a design is always likely to cause some form of friction for particular user groups. Considering both the task at hand and the diverse VCH user group, the objective of creating ‘familiar ease’ within the experience felt like a more rational approach to apply when making design decisions.
The redesign therefore aims to offer users an experience that guides them to potential opportunities of interest in a quick, straightforward, yet still engaging, manner.
This project was undertaken to showcase to the client, VCH, how the search and filter experience on an enhanced volunteer engagement could perform, based on the needs and wants of its customers.
They are now in the process of reviewing their numerous options regarding volunteer engagement platform providers but are now better equipped with an understanding of how a platform could look and feel which meets their volunteer users expectations.
As they move forward, my hope is that they can refer back to the work done in this project, as well as the VCH-Simply Connect user research project, to ensure that their chosen provider integrates as many of the user-centric principles and design solutions identified and explored within the two projects.
The short answer is further testing. I’d of course wish to validate the design and make iterations based on the feedback received from users. I hope this is something which will be possible in the near future, so do check back to see if the page has been updated.
Following the validation of the mobile design, I would then look at adapting and scaling up the designs to larger screens, before, in an ideal world, testing these designs and iterating further.
After that, taking on the task of redesigning the wider platform would be an interesting challenge.
Completing this project definitely reinforced my appreciation of Jacob’s Law and the approach it encourages in creating designs which prioritise familiarity and usability over innovation for the sake of uniqueness. I feel Deedmob, and its diverse user groups, could benefit greatly from a simplified design which sticks more closely to the principles underpinning this ‘Law’.
I also found real value in conducting the benchmarking exercise with the job board sites. Learning from these well-established companies and the rigorous testing their designs have likely undergone greatly enhanced the redesign and could provide Deedmob with a genuine competitive edge over other providers in the same market space. I feel this holds true even while acknowledging that resources and expertise may limit the inclusion of some of the more complex design solutions included in my redesign. However, even if this were the case, there was much to take away from how these sites applied best practices related to user interaction, information architecture, and visual design.
