Designing for a great

User Experience

What is User Experience?

But first...

Why do you need a website?

Objectives:

what do you want to achieve?

• Organisation goals

• Website goals

• Conversions o sign up a volunteer

o make a sale

o make a donation

o register

o share on social network

User experience:

a means to an end

- to achieve a goal

What changes to

experience change

conversion positively

or negatively ?

Rinse and repeat.

Who does your website need to

speak to?

Include external and internal stakeholders

What do they want from the site?

How can the site provide value or be of use for them?

What is it that they are trying to get done by using your site or service? Understand their purpose for

using you, how they talk about it, Where they are coming from.

Have empathy with your users. See it from their perspective. If you know the job they want to get

done, you can put yourself in their shoes in order to make the right decisions.

How will they access the site?

Desktop, tablet, mobile?

If starting from scratch

consider Mobile First or

Responsive Design.

What makes a great experience?

Developing personas for your primary audiences can help

in identifying what makes a great UX for each

Young person (under 18)

Young person (18-25)

Corporate supporter

Supporter (friends and family)

Funder

* Sketches courtesy of my lovely agency yoomee

User Experience Honeycomb

Copy and Information Architecture

Q. How do users read on the web?

A. They don't

Users mostly glance at each new page and scan text. They

click on the first link to catch their eye or which vaguely

resembles what they’re looking for. There are large areas of

the page they don’t even look at. In other words, they read

the web like a billboard rather than a document.

Look at any video game – they rarely have more than three

option buttons on any one screen. Too many choices

confuse.

Usage lifecycle

a user progresses from initially being unaware, through

being a first-time user, to ultimately becoming a

passionate user.

Creating a great User Experience

1. Respect the usage lifecycle Realise that not all users are at the same level of experience with the website.

2. Use mental models The site’s user interface should reflect how users perceive the real world, not how the technical

implementation is structured.

3. Less is more People don’t read the web like books, they scan copy looking for headlines and key points. Focus on

short web copy and minimise choices.

4. Test with real users All changes should be regularly tested on real users, with time allowed for feedback and

improvements.

Everybody's Job

Great user experience needs to be part of the

mindset and focus of the whole organisation

Pleasure in the simple things in life

Damien Austin-Walker

@b33god

Head of Digital - @vInspired