Understanding the audience

I ran a users workshop with stakeholders as part of discovery. This workshop was all about the people who used the website. Using the knowledge of subject matter experts at Ministry of Social Development (MSD), we identified key user groups, goals, journeys plus external factors and barriers to accessing the service.

The primary audience for the first launch of this website was women who were experiencing domestic violence. There are future plans to make the website more inclusive of LGBTIA+ and male audiences too.

Redesigning the home page

We worked iteratively on the help portal. The first version of the site went live and overall the feedback was positive.The website had intentionally been designed with minimal imagery and a muted colour palette to not overwhelm people or make the website easily recognisable for people in potentially dangerous situations. We received feedback that whilst the site was functional, it could be more visually engaging, so the focus of phase two was to update the visual design. This included colour, tone and imagery.

Question

How might we use colour, imagery and content to create a web experience that creates and environment that supports people while they access the help they need?

Testing with people who had lived experience

We created a series of options, some with brighter colours, and others with a calmer colour palette. Two of the options included illustration and two had photography. We hypothesised that the illustrations would feel more inclusive because they weren’t of specific people.

Findings

• The illustrations didn’t resonate with people at all, people thought they were faceless
• People preferred photography
• Images of families were a big no, as it was too painful
• Images of women supporting each other and people having conversations were received the best, as they made people feel supported
• The brighter colours were received well, whereas the pale colours were too washed out and sad

As a team of people who did not have lived experience, we did not predict the outcomes of the testing. We had favourite designs but once we got the responses it was easy to let those go in favour of the direction that most resonated with people.

Design updates

• A new photoshoot to get imagery that was specifically created for the audience
• A brighter, more hopeful colour palette
• A friendlier new font
• More curved edges

Outcome

The revised portal received a positive response, particularly from women, Māori and those who have been close to domestic violence. The look and feel of the new site is positive and welcoming. It is strongly preferred over the old site.

The next phase of this project was to develop a tool to help users gain insight into the types of potentially harmful behaviours in their relationships. After inheriting this project from another agency, my role was to rethink the UX/UI design, improve the accessibility of the UI and extend the design across different breakpoints.

This tool is designed for people who are feeling concerned about behaviours that they are experiencing within their relationship. The goals of the tool were:

• To validate people's experiences
• Provide a first step for people who are concerned about behaviours in their relationship
• Guide people towards appropriate resources
• Educate people about different types of behaviours that they may not have considered abuse
• Provide immediate help for people who are experiencing immediate danger
• Make people feel safe and supported throughout the process

Key design decisions

• Make it very clear that no information is being saved
• Provide a quick exit button at all times
• Provide a help utilities bar on every page
• Break the questions into sections and give moments to pause in case people are feeling overwhelmed
• Provide clear progress, and set people's expectations for how long it will take