Overview
Team
Tammy Cho, Irene Rivera
Role
UX Researcher
Project Brief
Running Start is a non profit organization that trains young women to run for office regardless of political affiliation. Looking to gain more sign ups from young women for their programs, they wanted to redesign their website.
Research Goals
Find out how users currently understand and navigate the Running Start website experience.
Research Methods
Concept and Usability Study
Time
12 weeks
Process
Stakeholder Meeting
Stakeholders Melissa Richmond and Allison Goulden joined us on Zoom call to go over things that are important to them in terms of redesigning Running Start's website.
Takeaways
• Running Start wants to learn more from their Donors and Young Women
• The non profit’s legitimacy is important. They have encountered that some parents think that the organization isn’t real.
•They want more teens/young women to join their programs. They also want their alumni to feel proud and spread the word.
Usability and Concept Study
A content audit of the website along with the stakeholder’s notes and listing participant sample requirements brought Tammy and I to the following questions. These questions would guide us throughout the study.
Questions
• Do the program breakdowns and offerings make sense to participants?
• Does the website encourage sign-up and interest?
• What can be done to improve the website’s usability?
Recruitment & Sample
Through snowball sampling & social media outreach, we arduously recruited politically-minded young women.
• 5 one-on-one interviews using Zoom in April 2021
• 3 high school; 2 college
• All identified as female
• Political association : 2 Democrat, 1 Left, 1 Republican, 1 Unsure
Insights and Suggestions
"If there had been a thing like on the home page that’s like ‘oh get connected to workshops or internships’ then I would have stayed on the website to find it. There isn’t like an explicit ‘how to benefit from the program’, oh here’s how we can help you. "
-Miley
STUDY INSIGHTS
• Running Start’s impact and mission is vague to young women which in turn this is hurting their brand legitimacy and sign-up
• Inconsistencies in the web design (e.g. formatting of the text, unexpected outbound links) effects users from better understanding the website
“ The photos feel like an Astra Zeneca ad.”
-Star
STUDY INSIGHTS (cont.)
• The polished branding of Running Start is a barrier to connect and relate to the organization
• Spotlights of the young women comes across inauthentic due to lack of personalized stories, driving down trust
SUGGESTIONS
During our read out to Running Start stakeholders we provided suggested in two categories that we found were important during out concept and usability study.
Understanding Running Start
• Provide easy-to-find specifics of how Running Start programs work, including example schedules
• Improve readability and scannability of site text
•Reduce outbound links and streamline to make pages consistent
Picturing Yourself at Running Start
• More relatable and authentic imagery of program attendants
• Add more personalized stories, motivations and interests, in featured participants section of the website
• Make the connection between bi-partisanship and the trainings. List out the specific trainings on the site. Feature past talks and their topics
Reflection
While I performed a content audit of Running Start’s website, I was confident that it was solely usability issues that would arise. But as I debriefed with Tammy after each session, I started to slowly see that it was more than that. I wish I would have seen this sooner because I could have approached the first couple usability sessions differently by spending more time on extracting sentiments and perceptions of what Running Start does. I also wondered if our results would have been different, if our sample hadn't skew left. This was one of the challenges when recruiting. Regardless of our extensive efforts, young women with more left thinking were more responsive to signing up and doing the study.
