W ANDERSEN 

HALO

Halo is a charity app and web central management system, it is the charity arm of Baxta. For Halo I performed as the User Experience Researcher.

Step One : Discover and Research

The need to update and modernise the current cms was brought up in a group discussion on analytics data and user reviews. The majority of users found the current cms to be slow, cumbersome and hard to navigate. I set about doing some mixed methods evaluative research including, benchmarking, market/competitor research, analytics of current system, surveys and user interviews to better understand the problem.

Step Two : Define and Hypothesis

Through collaboration with the team we defined the problem and came up with our hypothesis, "How might charity owners use the central management system to create and monitor fundraisers, easily and quickly.' The 'what' being the central management system, the 'why' to keeping user engagment and retention, and the 'who' charity owners and fundraisers.

Through the previous user interviews in the define stage, I set about updating the personas so we knew actually who are target audience was and their needs. I also mapped the user journey and user flows through-out the cms, to get an detailed overview of user requirements and use case flows. Aswell as, mapping out the information architecture and creating a site-map. I synthesised all the data from the discover and define stage, into an overview report deck outlining the insights moving forward. A snapshot of goals, needs and requirements for stakeholders to easily view the problem at hand and empathise with the user. 

Step 3 : Ideation and Test 

As a team we got together in a human centred design workshop to brainstorm some ideas based on the research. Ideation, viability and prioritisation provided the group with a vision forward.

A wireframe was created and I conducted usability testing with users in our user group. I undertook remote moderated testing through a third-party portal, with 5 users in line with the persona requirements. I then synthesised the data, creating transcripts, affinity mapping, a video highlight reel and a report with actionable insights and recommendations. We then used these insights to iterate the designs. The designs were created into hi-fidelity by the UI designer. I set about preparation, and conducting of another round of usability testing of the hi-fidelity prototype. The sequence was repeated and the designs were next iterated or changed to the recommendations.

Step 4 : Iterate and Implement

 The designs were created in hi-fidelity by the user interface designer and I set about preparation and undertaking another round of remote moderated usability testing this time with a hi-fidelity prototype. The sequence from the previous testing was repeated and the designs iterated. Once the designs were updated to reflect the user need and requirement, the design was found to be simple quick and easy to use, supporting our hypothesis statement.

After Implementation we were able to track the analytics and user reviews to should a decrease in drop off rate of 40% and an increase in retention of 30%. The user reviews were positive and found the new cms easy to use. This feedback affirmed the success of the whole user experience process, which was a great win for the team and company as a whole.