You’ve probably heard the terms ‘user-centred design’ or ‘user experience’ before, but many people don’t know what this means. It seems to have turned into some corporate buzzword that people like to throw around like, ‘Circle back’ or ‘Synergy’. We break it down and explain why and how to ensure your website works for you and your users – whoever they may be.
So, what is user-centred design?
To call a spade a spade, user-centred designs are all about how your product, website or app are developed and at every point considering how the end user will interact. Users are at the centre of all stages. It can seem like a simple job, but some research is needed to implement this approach. For example, a bakery that sells cakes, one user might be looking for a wedding cake with fresh flowers, 6 tiers and a mini replica of the couple on top and have unlimted budhet. Someone else might be looking for a 30-serving sheet cake with simple frosting and a quick turnaround. Without some research, you are blind guessing what your user’s needs are and this can lead to some users having pain points that you wouldn’t even consider at a quick glance.
Some charities might have benefactors as their primary audience for there website. Some focus on funding, or volunteers, and some focus on government bodies and professionals in their fields. It’s important to have a clear scope of who your users are and how your website can get them where they need to go.
How do I know who my users are and what they need?
Luckily for us, user-centred design is everywhere right now. There are many tools to find out who your users are and what they use your website for. Here are some of our recommended tools and tricks to find out who your audience is:
- Google Analytics – This is the standard tool when finding out who your users are. Setting up Google Analytics means you can see the demographic of your users, the flow of webpages users take, how quick they are to leave the site and much more statics about your website’s users.
- Hotjar heatmaps – This tool is less about who your users are and more about showing you what they want and where they go on the website.
- Ask your users – Something as simple as a google form can tell you who your users are. Add a pop-up or a call to action on your website inviting people to share their experiences with you.
Once you’ve collected this data, it’s a good idea to keep all this information in one place. It could be in a spreadsheet or on tool like Figma jam or Miro board (They’re both amazing online whiteboards!) so you can start to categorise and group this information. You can start to see where your key areas are on your website, and your key audiences.
Okay, I know my users, now what?
Now you know who your users are and where they go on the site, it’s time to set some requirements. It might help to make some user personas based on the information gathered in the previous stage.
For example, if you are a school mentoring charity, and you notice that your most common users are aged 20-40 years old, then it’s safe to assume they would be teachers or parents. If you then look at your google analytics and see a lot of traffic going to a resource section but then the drop-off rate is really high, there might not be a clear path to get these target audiences to where they want to go. These paths can start to form requirements for development. Is there a clear signpost section for your target users? If you’re focusing on volunteering or donation, is there a call to action for this? (Check out Brightside – one of our clients and their well-signposted website to hit their goals. Read more here about our process )
The goal of user-centred design is to get users where they need to be in as few clicks and mental load as possible. Once you’ve made a list of all those requirements, you can start to edit or build your site around these. This can take time and throughout this process, it can be good to evaluate and revisit requirements as you go. Once the build or edits are to a point where it is an MVP (the most viable product), it’s time to test. This can be done by giving users a task to do on the website and asking them to record their experiences. How easy or hard it was to find a specific section without the use of search, any problems they encountered. At this point, you can decide whether it needs another loop of requirements, building and testing, or if the website is good to go.
This seems like a lot of work!
Creating and researching for a user-centred website can seem like a daunting task, but it is worth the initial investment. It can help improve bounce rates and user retention as users find engaging with the content they want easier. It can also help community building within your charity. Users can get involved with identifying those pain points at the start and can help test at the final product stage.
If you feel like your website could do with some TLC or guidance with getting users from A to B, get in touch.
