Creating a values based landing page for a coaching platform focused on increasing opportunities for women
The brief
Why VEST?
For this project, the VEST team hoped to update and improve the member experience by understanding their current site, improving their information architecture, and updating their landing page design with the ultimate goal of increased member conversion. We only had one month to complete this project which led us to prioritize the landing page design.
The mission of VEST of increasing the pipeline of women in power and encouraging women to invest in themselves through community and support deeply resonated with me because of the women who have mentored and encouraged me throughout my life.
Having women in more positions of power means more diverse perspectives, opinions, and opportunities.
Exploration
The challenge
Before
Completing a heuristic analysis
Creating a bigger picture
Sitemap before
Sitemap after
Designing a new landing page
Initial iterations
User testing of updates
User insights
Incorporating insights into design updates
The VEST team had just launched their services of creating a platform that helped connect women to more opportunities and a community. They had struggled to gain adoption and found that many visitors were unsure what their offerings were. I performed user research and design reviews to update their landing page.
Timeline
1/1/2021 —> 2/1/2021 (1 mo)
Tools
AdobeXD, Figma, Zoom, Flowmapp
Client
VESTher (Contract)
Scope
Heuristic analysis, information architecture, design
The current VEST site made an impact using Gestalt theory to communicate the problem area that they were hoping to address, but it didn't communicate the services they were offering. VEST wanted their landing page to encourage members to sign up and become a part of their member's only community.
It was during the heuristic analysis that the team got excited about the UX process because they were able to make actionable changes to their site and felt empowered to make design decisions going forward.
The main heuristic improvements I suggested:
User control and freedom | rating: 4/7 | HIGH
Exit buttons (upper right corner) did not meet accessibility standards and therefore were difficult to see.
Consistency and standards | rating: 3/7 | HIGH
Lack of consistency in sign up and nomination forms potentially signaled a glitch and that their information may go to the wrong place.
Visibility of system status | rating: 3/7 | HIGH
If the user is put on a waitlist after signing up, it would be helpful to include a timeline for when their application will be reviewed.
With the insights that visitors were unsure of the offerings of VEST, I found it important to work with the team to bring greater internal alignment through a values matrix exercise. This clarity would help improve communication through the website and make it so visitors could clearly speak to the mission of VEST.
Before focusing on aesthetic design changes, I led the VEST team through a values exercise on Mural where we defined a "How Might We?" statement and mapped the VEST goals to the values.
In the original site architecture, most of the site's information lived in the footer and some of the navigational links looped on to themselves which led to confusion for the user.
The updated sitemap focused on a more condensed navigational system that combined similar pages together and prioritized the main flows of the site, such as the application and nomination pages. The new sitemap also included a specific page for the mission of VEST.
Because conversion was a primary goal of the landing page, I researched best practices for persuasive design such as clear CTA’s, testimonials, and simple user flows and integrated those elements into the prototype for testing.
I proposed a few options for the VEST team for design direction. The first few options didn’t align with their branding, but by the fourth try we were close to a design that we could use for testing.
Membership details: users wanted more clarity around what membership to VEST would be like and what their level of commitment would be, they wanted more transparency in terms of membership.
After conducting the initial usability tests, one participant summed up perfectly what needed to be a priority moving forward: "I can explain the why, but not the how". In the designs, we had been able to communicate the mission and intention of VEST, but not the value of becoming a member.
“I can explain the why, but not the how”: users were clear on the mission of VEST and understood the values that defined the platform, but struggled when defining the tangible value of VEST and what being a member meant.
Changes in the final designs primarily focused on adding contextual copy and reorganizing sections, for example breaking up testimonials and having membership details directly after the first CTA.
In the original design of VEST, the landing page was defined by impactful statistics that caught the users attention and flowed through the use of Gestalt design techniques. I wanted to keep the fire and essence of this original landing page in the site, while making it more readable and succinct.
Overview
Process
Outcomes
Providing clear messaging
Lack of primary user research
After validating the updated design decisions and messaging for their website, files were handed over to the team to implement. The team was excited to be able to have a website that more clearly communicated their intentions as a company and felt they could build upon it. For only having a month to complete this project, we were able to make an important impact. They even reached out to me later to create a print advertisement for their local newspaper!
Conducting initial user testing would have been beneficial in approaching this challenge from the beginning. Having this baseline understanding would have set a stronger foundation for creating a product that aligned with user needs rather than spending time on aligning with business values. While both are important, it was also an important lesson in what to prioritize in the scope on an accelerated timeline.