HGAPS STUDY
PROJECT BACKGROUND
THE PLAN
My intention was to provide a comprehensive overview of HGAPS.org. I aimed to inform stakeholders about any existing issues and suggest modifications to enhance the site’s effectiveness in achieving their objectives. Given that HGAPS.org serves diverse audiences, I focused specifically on student and the general public.
Student Users
Current and prospective volunteers are likely among the most frequent visitors, so I believed the site should primarily target them. I wanted to assess their understanding of how to join or create chapters. Additionally, considering the impact of Coronavirus, I sought to determine if the site effectively encouraged volunteers to engage with HGAPS' mission during social distancing. My focus was on evaluating the site's level of interactivity.
The questions I posed included:
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Can students join or create chapters?
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Is the site interactive enough?
General Public
For the general public, I aimed to how well the site organized content, minimized scientific jargon, encouraged donations, and provided a clear navigation system. I believe these elements are crucial for any organization looking to connect with a wider audience.
The questions I posed included:
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Can users donate?
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Can users find resources?
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Is navigation user-friendly?
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Is there excessive psychological jargon on the site?
In the summer of 2020, every Viget intern was required to undertake a personal project alongside the group project. I chose to evaluate HGAPS.org, the website for a student-run non-profit based at UNC-Chapel Hill. HGAPS, which stands for Helping Give Away Psychological Science, offers free mental health resources to the public. The website serves as a platform for users to learn about HGAPS' mission, access resources, and make donations, while also enabling students to volunteer or establish new chapters at other colleges. Consequently, the site is crucial to HGAPS' mission of distributing resources to those in need. Therefore, I decided to analyze the website and provide stakeholders with recommendations to enhance HGAPS.org and better achieve their organizational objectives.
GOALS
My overarching goals were to...
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Provide stakeholders with valuable, high quality data
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Offer useful, actionable suggestions for improving future iterations of their site
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Provide concept models to aid stakeholders in their iteration efforts
Almost all of these goals were met with the exception of concept modeling. Due to time constraints I ended up focusing my attention of the first two goals.
METHODS
I would have loved to have done user testing, but unfortunately I was short on time. In leu of user testing, I used Cognitive Walkthrough and Heuristic Evaluation. These methods allowed me to get a brief, broad overview of the site with the only drawback being their subjectivity. To include more quantitative data into my site analyses, I chose to analyze navigation through Tree testing. This method provided me with hard data that could back any suggestions I made regarding the format and clarity of their navigation system.
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Cognitive Walkthrough
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After taking on the mindset of a student who frequently used HGAPS.org, I walked through the website while attempting to complete tasks. Along the way I took notes, determining if I (as a student user) would know what to do, how to do it, and if I had completed that task correctly.
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The tasks I self composed fell into three categories…
1. Interacting
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Access social media links
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Give feedback
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Donate
2. Learning
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Find information about current chapters
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Find out how to make a new chapter
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Find mental health resources
3. Getting Involved
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Join existing chapter(s)
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Create new chapter
Heuristic Evaluation
Like cognitive walkthrough, heuristic evaluation included a personal walkthrough of HGAPS.org. This time, however, I remained in the mindset of a UX Researcher. I followed a pre-made checklist, taking notes and rating aspects of the site on a scale of 1 (very poor) to 5 (excellent).
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Tree Test
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I developed a Tree test to evaluate the site’s navigability. The test was created and administered through OptimalSort. Participants were asked to imagine that they wanted to complete a variety of tasks. They would then click on menu items that, in their minds, would help them reach their goals.
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The tasks participants were given fell into five groups...
1. Understanding HGAPS' purpose
2. Donating
3. Starting a new chapter
4. Learning about current chapters
5. Finding mental health resources
FINDINGS
After collecting data, I was able to place all of my findings into three broad categories: Interactivity, Navigation, and Content. Recommendations were offered for each of these categories.
Cognitive Walkthrough
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Interactivity
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I noticed that the site lacked calls to action, and featured small social media icons and a social media feed that failed to draw the eye.
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Navigation
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I noticed that the site had a glitchy menu system (meaning that the nav bar would pop up before disappearing into the menu once users entered the site). The navigation system was also unclear, meaning that the site often overcompensated with embedded links to help users get where they needed to go.
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Content
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I noticed that chapter pages had quite a few inconsistencies that really made the organization feel incohesive. More attention appeared to have been allocated to the UNC page.
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Heuristic Evaluation
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Interactivity
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I saw few calls to action for donations, and noticed that there was little transparency regarding where the donated money would go.
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Content
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When it came to content I noticed some copy issues. The main problems were light text or icons on light backgrounds, and inconsistencies in text coloration. I also noticed that there was quite a bit of clutter on some of the site’s pages. Finally, I noted that there were no real help options. Even the “Helpful Links” feature on the bottom banner of the site was inactive.
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Tree Test
Participants struggled with starting new chapters, as well as with finding information about how to start a new chapter. To do both of these things they would need to go to the “Apply Now” page on the navigation bar.
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When attempting to start a new chapter, a decent amount of users attempted “Impact and tools” or “Team” & “National Chapters” pathways instead of clicking “apply now.”
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There was even more confusion about finding information. Users chose Impact and Tools, Assessment Center, and National Chapters before finding apply now.
Similarly, participants had issues finding information about existing chapters and starting that application process.
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Quite a few people attempted the “apply now” path rather than follow the correct path to “National Chapters” when they were asked to find information.
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When it came to joining a chapter there were even more issues. Participants far more frequently chose the “apply now” page (and to a smaller degree the “Impact and Tools” page) over “National Chapters.”
RECOMMENDATIONS
Navigation
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I would encourage the team to get rid of the glitching menu and just keep the navigation bar popped out.
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I would also encourage them to improve navigation by reducing redirect links and changing page names. For example, “Impact and Tools” could change to “Our Work.” This title would better describes the purpose of the page, clarifying the information that might be found there.
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Since users had a particularly hard time finding chapter-related content, these pages should be reorganized on the navigation bar.
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The purpose of the “Apply Now” page is to start a new chapter and find information on how to do so. Nevertheless, “Apply Now” appears far away from the “Team” page, which contains all other chapter related content. Pages related to starting a new chapter shouldn’t be made distinct from the rest of the chapters content. In the images below you'll find the current display followed by a rough wireframe of what some navigational changes might look like.
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“Executive Team” could instead become its own item on the navigation bar, separated from an item called “Chapters.” Nested within “Chapters” could be all of the existing chapters, as well as another page called “Start a New Chapter.” That page would feature information and a sign up form.
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Content
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HGAPS could minimize page clutter by being briefer in the copy, increasing spacing between page items, and filtering through the site to remove unnecessary features and content.
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Icons and text could be improved by ensuring the light icons and text appear on darker backgrounds (and vice versa). HGAPS' developers should also ensure that the color of the copy is consistent throughout the site for accessibility purposes.
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It would also be helpful to make the chapter pages more uniform so that each chapter appears as valuable as the next (further encouraging participation and cohesion).
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Finally, jargon should be excluded from the site. Alternatively, any necessary jargon can be offset by adding short blurbs defining it. For instance, the definition and purpose of psychological assessments could be added to the “Assessments” page for the benefit of the general public.
Interactivity
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Social media icons should be enlarged or strategically placed to draw attention.
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The social media feed should be brightened up to draw attention as well.
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In the images below you can find the social media feed of another organization (Charity International). This was used as reference for stakeholders because of its ability to draw user attention and interest.
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When it comes to donations, stakeholders should increase copy-based calls to action, as well as transparency about what the donations will be used for. It might also be prudent for HGAPS’ developers to backlight their donation button, drawing user attention towards that feature on the navigation bar.
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Below you can find the image I used as reference for HGAPS’ stakeholders. This is Planned Parenthood’s navigation bar. It features a backlight donation button that draws the attention of site visitors.
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