ACSA.

Helping newcomers discover social program information seamlessly.

PROJECT oVERVIEW

ACSA is a non-profit organization that provides resources and services to vulnerable populations in the Scarborough area. The project prioritized accessibility and usability across the ACSA’s website, aiming to create a seamless, inclusive experience for newcomers with limited language proficiency.

MY CONTRIBUTION

Collaborating with two fellow designers and a project manager, I was responsible for interview script iteration, conducting user testing and competitor analysis, synthesizing insights, developing wireframes and refining prototypes.

mY ROLE

UX/UI Designer

tIMELINE

May 2022 - Aug 2022

TEAM

3 Designers, 1 Project Manager

tOOLS

Figma, Google Suite, UX Tweak

/ THE PROBLEM

Users struggle to find information, leading to frustration and excessive calls

With more immigrants noticing the existence of the ACSA organization, they used ACSA's website for checking social program information, However, the website was not mobile responsive and many clients opted to call ACSA's phone line instead. This created a huge workload on ACSA's customer service staff and caused frustration for users.

The Goal

How might we

design an intuitive experience for newcomers to easily discover and navigate program information, so they feel confident and empowered to participate, while reducing operational efficiency?

/ dISCOVERY

Understanding the current experience

We conducted 5 semi-structured interviews online with newcomers aging from 28 to 45 years old. The goals of this research were to:

  • Discover the users’ main objectives when visiting the website, which will help define the main user paths

  • Explore the challenges they face when trying to achieve their goals

To organize the interview data, I consolidated the info into an affinity map to find emerging trends and pain points of our users .

/ RESEARCH fINDINGS

Challenges faced by users

The conversations with the current users validated their difficulties that have been mentioned by staff and the result of current website audit.

01

Not Mobile Responsive📱

The current website is not mobile-friendly. Users struggle to view and navigate content on their phones, which makes it frustrating to use on the go.

02

Poor Information Architecture 🏛️

The current information architecture lacks clear organization and intuitive labelling, making it difficult for users to understand where to find specific content.


03

Limited English Comprehension 🔤

Many users are newcomers to Canada with limited English proficiency. Heavy text content increases their cognitive load, making it harder to understand the site and complete tasks confidently.

04

Poor Searchability 🔎

Although the website contains a large amount of content, it lacks a search function. This makes it difficult for users to quickly find information—even when they know exactly what they’re looking for.

/ dEFINE AND SCROPE

Who are we redesigning for – immigrants with limited English proficiency

After going over user behaviors during our team meetings and reviewing the user stories from stakeholders, we created a persona to represent our target audience - newcomers with limited English proficiency. Since we only have 8 weeks, we decided to focus on Child & Family program – the most popular that users explore.

/ USER PATH

How does pooja discover information with the current interface

I also mapped out an experience map that outlines how pooja currently discovers information on the ACSA website. This helped me build empathy with my target users and to stay user-centred while identifying opportunity areas where I could intervene with my digital solution to create a seamless user journey. 

Opportunities would improve users' experiences:

/IDEATION 1

Conducting content audit and structuring new sitemap

I conducted an open card sorting test with users to learn users’ habits of going through the web navigation. According to the card sorting results, users feel frustrated when choosing between multiple navigation options and their focus in checking programs. Therefore, our team discussed with stakeholders to group similar options under the same tab.

/ sOLUTION 1

Simplified navigation bar to prioritize what users need

Now, the navigation bar is simplifies with only 5 category and the label under "projects" are easy for users to understand and choose.

/ IDEATION 2 – mOBILE-FRIENDLY iNFORMATION DISPLAY

Getting inspiration from competitor analysis

The old website shows all the information in the form of links. For mobile users, it is hard to read a large load of text on a screen, especially for people who do not understand English proficently. The more text, the heavy cognitive load it can bring.

I conducted a competitor analysis and get inspired from other non-profit website to see how they how programs in a clear way and figured out Cards are the way to go!

/ sOLUTION 2

That’s when cards come in

Cards present information in small, easy-to-digest pieces, helping newcomers avoid feeling overwhelmed. They make it easy to quickly scan program titles, short descriptions, and key details without needing to read everything closely. Cards also adapt well to mobile screens, keeping the layout clean and easy to navigate. By adding images, cards can make programs more visually appealing and encourage newcomers to explore more options.

/ FINAL DESIGN

New mobile-friendly experience for users

After completing a mid-fi prototype, wireframe, and iterations, I was able to produce a high-fidelity prototype. The primary task flow is looking up information on the afterschool programs for children. The final solution maintains a simple and clean website by presenting program information in the form of cards. Users may quickly navigate to key information on desktop and mobile.

/ RETROSPECTIVE

Reflecting my journey through this project

🧪 Test Quick and Often

Products don’t need to be perfect to begin testing. During the early stages of design, it’s more important to get feedback from user testing than to have a completed prototype. This way you can move forward and keep iterating. Rarely is the first prototype perfect, so I need to learn to let that idea go.

🕓 If I have more time…I will:

• Conduct additional user testing to validate and refine solutions.
• Expand scope to more user flows
• Create a design system to make the design consistent

Congrats, you made it to the end of the scroll! 🥳

Let's connect if you have questions or a project in mind.

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