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Overview
Nonprofits have always struggled to make do in an ever changing, always digital world. From lack of funding to lack of understanding, design does not, for the most part, play a major role in a nonprofits day to day.
Enter Book Harvest. A literacy advocacy organization based in Raleigh, North Carolina. Book Harvest has one goal: to make the book world more accessible for anyone and everyone.
Role
UX/UI Design
User Research
Why Was a Redesign Needed?
Book Harvest needed a website that functioned as well as allowed users to gain insights quickly.
The previous website lacked any kind of content organization and the website was really outdated.
Design Process
Discovery
In-depth research into similar nonprofit and mission based organizations provided important insights.
Desk Research
One of the main things I had to take into consideration was that Book Harvest's current landing page had a lot of information that was vital to keep within a users first scan.Beyond this I had to take into account the sites information architecture and overall layout of content.
This became a major theme throughout my work, I needed to find a way to display information in a digestible way, while keep Book Harvest's style and branding guidelines in place.
Landscape Analysis
Remote User Interviews
I needed to uncover target users impression and thoughts surrounding the current landing page.
I interviewed users who had never heard of BH before, and some who were more versed with the nonprofit world. It was important to understand both users.
These interviews generated many insights that would help shape the redesign. Some stood out more than others.
How might Book Harvest engage with new users quickly using the homepage and current brand guidelines?
Working High Level Solution
Create a meaningful landing page with a mission driven CTA for all users.
Usability Testing with the Current Site
Now that I understood the product and site through a users lens, I wanted to conduct testing on the current site, to understand the value of the sites content and current design and what needed to be changed.
This proved to be a very valuable site in the audit and redesign process. This kind of A/B testing provided many insights that drove iterations of my new landing page.
I conducted these tests remotely, asking participants a series of scenarios while they shared their screens and thought out loud.
Annotations From the Current Book Harvest Website
Early Ideation and Wireframes
Before going any further, I created some wireframes for the new landing page. Because of the nature of this project, I wasn't going to be too concerned with a rebranding or a UI overhaul. So, I was focused more on the could be's for Book Harvest.
Usability Testing with Proposed Wireframes
Rather than launch a redesign right then and there, I wanted to be sure and gain a few more user opinions before I opted for a fully designed landing page.
I conducted these tests remotely, and explained to participants before hand that the wireframes were an outline for a future design, highlighting that this test was not to gauge look and feel, but purely IA and content layout in order to understand what Book Harvest does.
Outcomes
Working on a redesign for a nonprofit was a really amazing experience, both personally and in terms of UX principles, practices, and design flows.
The next steps would be to update banding guides and give Book Harvest a little bit of a face lift. The images and content that BH works with could be improved a little, and the site could really pop. Designing for nonprofits is not just another skill I can add to my tool box, but it's where I would love to do another project in the near future.
Creating digitals spaces and products for people who really need the help is why I got into UX design in the first place.
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