OUTSTANDING EXPERIENCE IS BUILT ON OUTSTANDING RESEARCH
the users
Lachelle
CORE user PROBLEMS
Lachelle
Age - 54
Education - Masters (Social Work)
Occupation - Behaviour Therapist
Problem Statement - Lachelle is a Social Worker who lives in a tight-knit community where properties, including hers and businesses, are at-risk due to sea level rises. She is frustrated at how Council is making decisions in terms of their responses / actions to sea level rises. She finds the literature Council provides to community members is complex and confusing. Also, as a climate activist, she wants to share this information with fellow community members impacted by sea level rises. Lachelle wants to come up with collective ideas, presenting these to Council and participating in public consultation. Not being able to understand how Council makes decisions, however, is preventing her from offering any type of input or recommendations.
Peter
CORE user PROBLEMS
Lachelle
Age - 33
Education - Degree
Occupation - Engineering Consultant
Problem Statement - Peter is an Engineering Consultant who focuses on sea level rise adaptation solutions for local government. He has two small children, is time-poor and requires quick access to quality and easily understandable council information (such as decision-making frameworks in which the Council operates / acts). His projects are often time-delayed due to not being able to access such information or it being unnecessarily complex and confusing.
CORE user PROBLEMS
CORE user PROBLEMS
CORE user PROBLEMS
1. Users are time-poor - need easy-to-use, streamlined online experiences / tools to minimise the amount of time spent on tasks.
2. Lack of Transparency / Available Information for users - Difficult to find formal / official information on how Councils make / made their decisions in relation to action / responses to sea level rises.
3. Information Provided is Technical Language / Confusing Information - Sea level rises are directly impacting user’s properties – homes or business premises. When they manage to locate information relating to responses / actions their local Council is undertaking, it is complex and confusing technical jargon.
4. Frustration with local Council and Decisions Being Made - Frustrated and angry that council is not doing enough or taking the right actions / responses to effectively adapt to rising sea levels in order to save their properties.
Shaping the experience around the user
Information Architecture
The primary focus of the website’s information architecture (IA) was ease of use through a basic / simple design.
The architecture was built around the two main types of users – Council Users and Other Users. Council users required a secure account and the ability to edit the decision flowchart, while other users were read-only.
Other information deemed necessary was information about the topic – Sea Level Rise. This included a page About SLR and a News page.
The ability to search for a particular Council was also necessary, which involved including a "Search" page and a "Directory of Participating Councils" page.
WIREFRAMES - DESKTOP, Tablet AND MOBILE SCREENS (RESPONSIVE WEBSITE) & Dedicated app
low-fidelity prototypes - pre-usability testing
low-fidelity prototypes - post-usability testing
challenges
1. COUNCIL'S LACK OF TRANSPARENCY
- Council is able to submit and edit information related to their decision in the form of:
- a description of the exposure
- information about the exposure and decisions
- related scientific research or best practice solutions
- the rationale behind their decisions
- the actions / responses taken
2. INFORMATION PROVIDED BY COUNCIL IS TECHNICAL JARGON AND CONFUSING
- while this interactive decision-making flowchart can not prevent jargon, it will minimise information and reduce it down into understandable chunks. It is up to council to provide easy to understand language.
3. FRUSTRATION WITH LOCAL COUNCIL ABOUT THE DECISONS BEING MADE
- As per Point 1 above, the information and rationale behind the decision-making process can be clearly conveyed. Understanding the council's viewpoint and reasons why a decision was made can often lessen the frustration.
4. USERS ARE TIME-POOR AND NEED AN EASY-TO-USE, STREAMLINED PROCESS TO MINIMISE THE TIME SPENT ACCESSING AND INTERNALISING INFORMATION
- the method used to present the flowchart to "other users" provides for streamlined functionality. Users simply click on a particular node in the flowchart and pop-ups provide information the council has input.