Home > UX Research > Another Life Foundation Website

The Challenge

The purpose of this research was to test the usability of the Another Life Foundation (Alifef) website for those wanting to attend events, seeking volunteer opportunities, and requesting assistance from the organization. Alifef is a local non-profit organization assisting the community with mental health awareness and providing guidance to file for disability services. The usability testing focused on assessing a user's ability to accomplish activities associated with the website to identify the site's functionality based on the users' completion rate, efficiency, and pain points.

Users

Research began with interviewing Stephanie Green from Alifef to determine their needs and expectations. From the interview and client information provided, we compiled research about mental health demographics in Colorado Springs to craft a persona to represent their primary client. The user persona consolidates the typical characteristics of a client into a single user so that developers can understand their perceptions.

Usability Testing

There were 6 participants in this usability testing. Each participant was asked to navigate the Alifef website and to complete 5 tasks to the best of their ability. The time it took each participant to complete each task was recorded and compared. Participants were observed throughout the testing as well as interviewed after in order to better understand where they encountered issues with the website.

SUS Survey

We ended each testing session with a System Usability Scale (SUS) survey to evaluate the website’s design. The SUS survey focuses on the design and its impact on functionality. The survey is a list of ten statements asking the participant to rate the website’s design elements on a scale of 1-5, one being strongly agree, and five strongly disagree. While the sample size is small, it provides a reliable method to gather qualitative data to assess user behavior insights.

Recommendations

After completing the usability testing and examining the results, three recommendations were made to improve the website. We recommended that Alifef simplify their sign-up process by utilizing a 3rd party service, add navigational clues to inform the user of where they are within the website, and visually redesign the website in order to fit standard web practices.

Skills

This project displays my ability to conduct research in order to construct a persona based on the average user, as well as my ability to conduct usability testing on a product to determine areas for improvement. At the end of this project, I created a client report that compiled all of the data, results, and recommendations into one document, which I presented live to the client. Throughout this project, I communicated with our clients at Alifef in order to keep them updated on the process, as well as to gather information about Alifef and its specific needs.