Research Lab Website Redesign

Conducted exploratory research with formative evaluation to reshape website navigation flow and co-designed a new website

Study Overview

The original website aims to showcase the lab’s continuous and high quality of research. However, the website is outdated, experiencing low traffic, and lacks information that align with main audiences' needs.

As lead UX researcher, I conducted research and co-designed the website to enhance site navigation, clarify user needs and expectations, and identify issues and opportunities for improving user engagement.

ROLE

Lead UX Researcher

TEAM

Lab Principal Investigator,
Lab researchers, UX Designer, Backend Engineer, Product Manager (6)

  1. Define Objectives and Scope

  2. Define research method

  3. Data collection and analysis

  4. Report and documentation

  5. Prototype and Design Iteration

TIMELINE

2 Months, w/ongoing research and testing support

Outcome

We successfully launched the new website, and the redesigned screen garnered praise and recognition from our PI and PM. Implementation of research insights led to a 33% increase in pageviews and a 7.87% extension in the time spent on the new OpenStax Research page! 🕺🏻 🎉

  1. Define Objectives and Scope

The original research inquiry was:

“Hey Jasmine, we need you to help redesign this existing site”

However there was a lack of clarity on 1. why the website needs redesign and 2. how was it failing to meet user needs. My first job is to Clarify Context.

How? By asking the Right questions:

  • What’s the project goal?

  • What problem are you trying to solve?

  • What does success look like?

  • Why a website?

… … 

Need Assessment Interview 

Interviewed with internal stakeholders to learn business goal & plan for better defining research questions, goal & plan

And now, here’s the “new” inquiry:

“Hey Jasmine, we have an existing sites designated for junior and senior researchers. We want to use this site to advocate for our team, our research result & implementation, and welcome collaborations to help build better educational tools for public. 

However, The site is really outdated and has low discoverability, but we don’t know what’s missing and what researchers want or need to see on the site. We need you to help redesign this existing site”

2. Define Research Method

The new inquiry helped me understand:

Which stage is the research in the product cycle?

  • Discovery stage 

  • Do I want to know how people feel (attitudinal) or 

how people behave/use/do (behavioral)?

  • More attitudinal, less behavioral

  • Do I need quantitative or qualitative data

    • Qualitative

Which helped me determine the most appropriate methodology to apply 

In depth interviews

To explore user’s experience and feelings in depth. (n=11)

3. Data Collection & Analysis

Besides the notes collected from interview sessions, I also used transcription tool to help clean up the qualitative data. Then used post it notes & process/concept mapping to further break down data pattern and identify insights

4. Report and Documentation (example)

5. Prototype and Design Iteration

With the research insights in mind, I created some wireframes and low fidelity prototypes to further guide the design process.

We were able to implement most of the research insights into the website redesign. Here’s an example of the website before and after.

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