What is ‘The UX process’?
Whenever we talk about ‘UX’, we’re talking about the user experience (‘U’ser ‘Ex’perience. or UX for short). This is the process, of identifying your users, who they are, and what they come to your site to do. It’s a key stage of the website process, as it makes sure that you have all the pages you need, the priority of content, and the knowledge of key call to actions and priorities.
Some examples of those users might be:
- A donator
- A fundraiser
- Corporate partners
Finding your audience takes time and tools. Check out our blog here on the Importance of user experience to see the tools we recommend.
The list can be as short as 5, and as long as 30 in some cases. No matter how long the list, it’s important to take note of as many as possible at first, and then review throughout the process to make sure no group gets missed.
What is an audience mission?
For charity websites, we believe that there are 5 key priorities for users. These are:
- Information – Finding information about the charity, impact etc
- Education – Educating a user on a specific topic
- Collaboration – Talking and partnering with the charity
- Participation – Getting involved with the charity. Fundraising, volunteering etc
- Donation – Donating directly, gift in will etc.
An audience mission will assign each user group / audience to one of the 5 key priorities, with 1 being the highest priority and 3 being the lowest (but sometimes some audience might need to hit all 5). We usually show this via a table, and it’s a good exercise to help start plotting together specific groups and their missions on the site.
Example:
What is a persona and user journey?
A persona is how we bring together the users collected and assign them to the missions. There are multiple ways to create a ‘User Persona’, but they all follow the same forumula:
Who the user is + what they want to do + how can you get them there with the least resistance
It’s about who they are, what they’re trying to do, and identifying any issues or opportunities they currently have against these four points: Awareness, Interest, Consideration and Decision.
For example, if you have a Donors, Philanthropists and Corporate supporters. They all have that same audience mission in common- Donation. There are questions for the 4 which can help highlight pain points, and then opportunities for a more streamlined and thought out process:
- Awareness – How can they find the site, is there a linktree for socials, Landing pages for specific campaigns, easy ways to find your charity to look into.
- Interest – Can they see where there money will go, the impact it will have and the value the donation provides
- Consideration – How easy is it to donate. Are there prominent CTA? Too many clicks? A confusing donation page which might put them off attempting to?
- Decision – Is the donation form easy to use? Is anything blocked or ‘wrong’ on different screen sizes, Are there too many options or not enough options?
What is a sitemap?
A sitemap is usually a hierarchal map, which lists all the pages on your site. Starting with the homepage, then top level pages and any and all subpages that come off from it. Think of it as a spiderweb of all your pages.
They can get overwhelming, so there are a multiple different ways to display this process. A more in-depth map, like above, or something that’s a bit more simpler like this:
Usually when we hand these to clients, it can still be a lot to take in. We like to schedule calls with our clients to chat through the initial. The key
What is a wireframe?
A wireframe is the skeleton of your site, and when the initial sitemap and user research comes together and starts looking ‘real’ The colours are usually Greyscale, mainly to help break up the sections. This is so before adding the UI and Branding, we know all the elements needed are in place. The correct CTA’s, types of blocks, and helps the client to start thinking about content.
For example, if you have an impact report that’s a PDF, in wire framing we can assign sections for stats, make sure there’s a download CTA and any previous impact reports. Without writing the entire report onto the page.
Sometimes if you get a wireframe, it can go one of two ways. Excitement, as you’re seeing your new site come to life, or it can be easy to get hung up on the looks, since it’s just greyscale and simple designs. Check out this journal piece about wireframes to learn about what to expect during this process, and how to give clear feedback during this stage
The terminology can get a bit confusing
At Northern bear, we understand that our clients might not be experts in website design. Most clients we interact with have many hats within their organisation and that is okay. We’re here to take care of the technical bits so you can continue what you do best, but also help educate you along the way.
Check out these other posts in our ‘Demystifying’ series, where we help educate you on terminology:
