1
Discover
Market and Competitive Research
Redesigned the website of the borough of Hackney, while designing a better experience for citizens who want or need to access information about the borough and its services. Conducted a market and competitive research to understand the marketplace better at a larger scale and spark more creative ideas for the product.
Direct Competitors
Indirect Competitors
Key Takeaways
- Hackney is a relatively young borough with 25% of its population under 20 and a further 23% aged between 20-29 years old. People aged over 55 make up 18% of the population. (GOV.UK)
- Given the fact that diversity of the population in the U.K is increasing, some councils are providing some features to improve accessibility, such as the translation, chatbot features like on Enfield Council website.
- According to the LSE artificial intelligence and robotics are increasingly becoming commonplace in local government sites, adopted by forward-thinking councils.
- 6% of Hackney’s residents were born in Turkey and live throughout the borough. An estimated 100 languages are spoken in the borough.
User Research
Conducted 8 user interviews both in person and remote and recieved 48 responses to the survey aiming to understand user behaviours and mental models in terms of interacting with their local councils and their experiences of using council websites. Participants were recruited through online platforms.
Created affinity diagrams by leveraging the information gathered from our research. The goal was to leverage user interviews and research to find valuable user insights and key takeaways.
Key Takeaways
- 89% of participants use council tax and waste collection services.
- 63% of participants prefer using a desktop/laptop when using a council website.
- 60% of the frustrations were website design related. Participants commented on dated design, information overload on the site and bad information architecture.
- 50% of participants view the council website as functional and are happy as long as it provides information they need.
- 30% of participants had problems with the information architecture of the website.
2
Define
Problem Statement
Based on the user interviews and survey resultes, came up with primary problems that users are facing.
They’re struggling to find the information they need efficiently and easily.
They find the current website design outdated.
Users are feeling indifferent to Council and Council services.
“Busy Hackney resident wants a simple website in order to use certain council services such as council tax payment, waste collection and complaints efficiently.”
Persona
Synthesised user insights and then identified the best way to humanise and present those insights as a persona.
Simon represents the primary user group of people who wants to use his council account and services more quickly and efficiently.
However, he finds it difficult to use Hackney council’s current website as the current website is difficult to navigate and there is an information overload.
Journey Map
Created Alex’s journey map to visualise how a user interacts with council services and see it from a user’s point of view.
It helped to address users’ pain points and create a better experience for the users.
3
Develop
Concept Cards
Having uncovered the pain points for the users, came with 5 different concepts to solve these problems.
1
My Dashboard
A personal dashboard that allows the users to have an overview of their council account and quick access to services.
2
Live Chat
Live chat feature would be provided with artificial intelligence and real advisors to instantly assist users with their requests.
3
Email or Text Reminder
Automatic reminder via email to remind the users of payment dates and waste collection days. They would stay updated and save their time.
4
End of Page Questions
End of page questions would provide a list of suggested topics that are related to the page to help the users to find similar topics.
5
What's Around Me
The users would be able to find facilities and services around them based on their postcode. They would be more aware of what is happening in their area.
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5
Concept Testing
Conducted concept testing with low - mid-fidelity wireframes to test 5 design concepts to confirm their value and design direction before a lot of time and effort has been invested in creating prototypes.
Then refined and improved our concepts based on the feedback received.
Wireframes and Prototypes
Finally, created a clickable prototype and mid-fidelity wireframes for website and mobile in Figma.
Usability Testing and Report
In order to establish a baseline of user performance and identify potential design concerns, conducted usability tests, both in-person and remotely with 5 users. The users were asked to test the prototype, perform tasks and provide feedback.
Key Takeaways
- The users preferred the live chat window to be visual at all times instead of having to scroll down to the end of a page to locate it.
- The users would like to see the list of suggested topics at a more visible location of a page instead of at the end of it.
4
Deliver
Further iterations
In order to successfully deliver the project, had to prioritise the most important features as the Hackney Council website is complex with a vast amount of information.
- Re-evaluation of the position of the Dashboard on the main menu is recommended. It is currently under the Home menu, along with the Home page. One solution would be to look at nesting the Dashboard within a separate Profile/My Account page.
- For the “What’s around you?” feature, further research into how people use map search functions is recommended.
- Recommend to look into translation service (Google translate) in order to increase accessibility. 48% of our interview participants had English as a second language so there is room to explore this specific feature. A number of competitors utilised a translation feature in different ways and with varying prominence on their websites.
At the end of 4 weeks, successfully redesigned the Hackney council web and mobile site and we received great feedback from the users.
Acquired great experience of working on both mobile and desktop sites. It was challenging to work on the information architecture as the website was very big itself and contained a lot of information.