Improve Youth Support and Advocacy Service website user experience
The teenage years are typically a period of experimentation, regardless of parenting skills and influence. Services like Youth Support and Advocacy Service (YSAS) engage, support and strengthen highly vulnerable and high-risk young Victorians affected by, or at risk of being affected by, alcohol, drugs, mental health issues and social disconnection.
My Role
As a part of my final project at GA-Melbourne, we were approached by Youth Support and Advocacy Service (YSAS) to improve their website within a timeline of three weeks.
I collaborated with 3 other UX designers in every phase of human centred process — research, synthesis, ideation, information architecture and strategic design to create an intuitive and efficient deliverable.
Journey through this project
We adopted a Human Centred Design approach to understand the purpose of this website in the overall process of helping a troubled youth.
Our Research key findings contradicted the client’s requirement. Thankfully, our client believed in the process and agreed to take these findings forward into an efficient end product.
Project Goals
- Create an intuitive, age appropriate product that is the first point of call for young people at risk and for professionals to recommend
- Highlight YSAS’s position as a thought leader within the community
- Create a digital product that reflects the values and business strategy of YSAS
Kick off
Stakeholder requirement
Based on our meeting with the Stakeholders, we had a some assumptions, constraints and workarounds.
Comparable Organisations
We had a look at eight websites both on the desktop and mobile.Here are three websites that did a good job based on our criteria:
- Brisbane Youth Service : Clear and well organised main navigation
- Nurse and Midwife Support: Clear call to actions
- Berry street : Look and feel of the website was nice. It had facts to reassure the user on the success of the organisation
User Research
Since we didn’t have immediate access to the YSAS Youth workers and clients, We had a few workarounds. We interviewed and conducted contextual inquiries with:
- 6 teenagers between the age of 15 to 18 years to understand teenager’s perspective on issues like drugs, alcohol and mental health issues
- 2 Secondary school teachers on their awareness of YSAS
- 2 Police officers on the referral process
- 5 Youth workers from other organisations to understand the end to end process of helping a troubled Youth and their collaborations with YSAS
YSAS Initiatives and their respective websites
- YoDAA: An initiative to guide youth (12–25 years) with alcohol and drugs issues
- Out of Home care toolbox: Initiative that provides easy access and effective information on mental health issues for the supporters and carers of young people (12–18 years)
- YouthAOD: Tool used by newer workers who want to enrich or reinforce their knowledge, and by established workers who would like to add new skills or modalities.
What’s the role of YSAS website then?
This was the question that reared our heads.
Key findings from the interviews and contextual enquiries
- Targeted age group had not heard of YSAS and were being referred to Kids Helpline, Beyond Blue, Headspace
- Most common referrals were through word of mouth
- Young people who were referred to website were looking up programs and services
- Professionals who were interviewed saw the website more as an information resource
- Key YSAS brands/,initiatives need to be highlighted
- Young people more inclined to use phones for personal, non school related searches
- Young people use Snapchat and Instagram as primary social media with Facebook and YouTube secondary
We got access to 2 Service Directors of YSAS after the research phase.The interviews helped us validate our findings.
Key findings from YSAS website’s google analytics
- Analytics strongly suggest that professionals and possibly family members are the main users of the website
- The main use of website is searching for programs and services
Ideal user journey maps based on research findings
- Chloe, 17 years old- Comes from a troubled family. Left home and also dropped out of school.
2. Megan, 30 years old- Youth worker who comes across a youth on ice and is homeless.
Key findings from journey maps of both youth and youth professional
Both primarily use the YSAS site for the same purpose: To find out about programs & services and to find the location of a YSAS centre
It became apparent that these 2 journeys are not dissimilar and rather than filtering them for the different audiences, it would make more sense to create a search function that would satisfy both approaches.
The Challenge
How might we better promote YSAS services in order to build trust in the YSAS brands?
Design
Website Analysis
- Design is masculine
- Graphic elements cause confusion
- There is a lack of information hierarchy
- Duplication of content and navigation- 9 categories under information for youth, essentially links the user to the articles section. However, the content wasn’t accurate to the specific category.
- Distracting animated GIF
- Successfully youth focused
- Design may not be helpful to those who have arrived in a distressed or anxious state
Current Site Map
Main Navigation has too many categories under each tab. The user tends to get lost in the navigation.
Proposed Site Map
- We went about eliminating some of the categories & found ways to better group them.
- Used card sorts to come up with a better filtering system for 78 articles
Proposed Site Map
Firstly, we moved away from a navigation system based on an audience segment.
We worked out a more clean and consistent main navigation.
About : for all the information on the corporate office.
What we do : To understand YSAS’s advocacy services.
Programs and services : Based on our research-people will be looking for programs and services. We felt it should be given more prominence. In the current navigation it was hidden.
Resources : Articles, Stories and any other useful information wasn’t what people were first looking for as per the analytics and research. So they could be grouped together under resources.
Goals Re-defined
- Focus should be on the YSAS organisation as a whole and promotion of its work in the community
- The website still needs to act as an emergency point of call for young people who find it organically
- Other key services like YoDAA need to be highlighted
Paper Prototype and Testing
We primarily wanted to test the find a service or centre function as that is the most important feature for our user groups. Our testers understood the functionality of the search.
Prototype
Here’s our prototype to experience an efficient way to access services and information
Recommendations
- New image strategy — showing more images and icons
- Update Content Strategy — less words, current article images need to replaced and updated
- Recommend new photography strategy to reflect revised primary users
- Disclosure — Have placed the ‘Donate’ button in footer but realise it could be in a more prominent position when it moves to “Funraisin” site
- Feedback form — needs further research and has to be relevant. There are currently two very different feedback forms on the site
Product Roadmap
Horizon 1
- 20th anniversary campaign
Blog, anniversary events: promote front and centre on home page - LinkedIn campaign
Promote thought leadership. Currently 1100 followers - Include public transport options
In the “Find Centre in Service” - More video and pictorial content
Outlining the centre facilities and services - Social media
Targeted ads that don’t directly address the problem but look at the symptoms
Horizon 2
- Create a simple budgeting tool on the website that a counsellor can use to help a client with budgeting issues
- Create an employment board in association with Seek
How do we reach people with limited internet access?
- Partnership with Telstra Air and McDonalds
- Utilise their free Wifi and have a login screen showing the YSAS partnership with a Call-To-Action
- Brief description of YSAS / YoDAA services
Horizon 3
How do we reach people with limited internet access?
Outdoor advertising — bus stop billboards advertising YSAS or
YoDAA services
- Wifi hotspot built into the billboard
- Can capture information at login
- Brief message about YSAS / YoDAA
- Timed service
My Reflections
I entered into this project thinking that it’s a UX intervention, but in the end I got an understanding on Service Design and Strategic Design. I gained confidence in myself as a designer.
Working with my fellow passionate UX Designers was a fantastic experience. We learnt to always find a workaround whenever we faced a challenge. This helped me in my personal life as well. They not only made me feel very comfortable in team, but also taught me the Aussie lingo.
