Using Collaborative UX to Design for Social Advocacy

Posted Apr 7, 2011 // 0 comments

For several years, we’ve been fusing the visual design and user experience design processes together more formally. And, in doing so, the end result is a more intuitive site with complementary functionality and aesthetics.

This approach was crucial in the campaign website redesign for a leading conservation organization focused on building awareness surrounding it's community-based solutions. In its former state, it had multiple calls to action that lacked visual differentiation from one another, and all were competing for the user’s interest throughout most pages of the site.  

I should note that this is typical in high-traffic organizations with multiple goals; its stakeholders (understandably so) want to see their objectives represented online and, without prioritization, the user is left to decide what’s most important.

So when we worked with RARE Planet on their new design, we kicked off the overall process by having our UX and design team sit down with them, talk about the opportunities and challenges from both the visual and functional sides of things, then come up with a list of priorities.

At that point, we took our typical process a step further -- each team member (internally) spent an hour producing a hand-written sketch of what s/he envisioned for the most important pages. We came together and talked about each person’s ideal priorities for certain key pages, then came to defined conclusions that we presented to the client for approval.

The end result was a more page-by-page, context-based user experience that presented particular calls to action that aligned with specific content. The client understood the great opportunities this approach presented, so we set into formal wireframing to crystallize the priorities.

At this point, I created a series of wireframes for the rest of the pages beyond the key pages we already had created. Before creating a single layout, I’d consider the stakeholders’ objectives and talk with Laura, who was designing the visual experience.

I also set up regular meetings with a small team to gather initial feedback to the wireframes, then make revisions before presenting them to the larger team. This iterative approach was crucial to the aggressive progress of the project and to the overall success of the user experience.

Plus, in the end, we know that the site has to *mean* something to users and compel them to engage -- rather than just *be* something (passively speaking).