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CASE STUDY

REFUGE RANCH MINISTRIES

• University of Minnesota UX/UI Bootcamp Design Challenge

• 3 week sprint

• 4 person team 

• My role: UX Researcher

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OVERVIEW

For this team challenge, we were tasked with choosing a nonprofit organization and creating a high-fidelity design solution to issues with its current website. This was to be done through a clickable UI prototype, and by executing the Design Thinking Process. The nonprofit we went with was Refuge Ranch Ministries. 

Refuge Ranch Ministries (RRM) is a ranch that rescues horses from dire situations, and with these horses offers equine therapy to at-risk youth through their "Mentor the Child" program, which teaches life skills, provides structure, and assists with mental health issues.

CURRENT SITE

Issues with design and accessibility can be noticed right away on the current site. The home page has an outdated appearance, small font, dark text on a dark background, and odd placement of buttons and images. 

The sign-up page has some of the same issues, and is also really text heavy. The sign up form is all the way at the bottom of the page, but in addition to it being difficult to see what information it is asking for, it is also confusing as to what exactly you are signing up for, or, what happens when you submit the information.

With the navigation, the menu bar has to be opened by clicking a button ("Menu") in the top left corner, and it's not completely obvious what some of the options are. 

GOALS OF THE RANCH

To start, a stakeholder interview was held with the ranch team. In order to find the best solutions, we needed to gain insights into what they felt were their unique problems, what they wanted to accomplish with the site, and what their overall objectives were as an organization.

They weren't very "tech-savvy," as they described it, and weren't very familiar with design principles, so they weren't totally sure where to start with fixing things, and the last updates they had done to the site happened several years prior. 

In talking with them, they described their foremost goal, which is the fulfillment of their mission: "Revive the spirit, rescue the equine, and mentor the child." Their aim is to achieve this by creating a safe environment for the children in their program who are participating in this alternate form of mental health therapy, so it was important for them to be able to communicate this through the site. With this, they wanted to increase the awareness of their organization and the program, and up its enrollment numbers.

• Use the site to clearly
communicate its mission

• More professional appearance

• Increase program enrollment

• Raise awareness of
equine therapy

EMPATHIZE

Chelsea, Minneapolis

"The appearance looks unfinished, and like it came from  the early 2000's internet."

Gregory, Chicago

"It's surprising that they wouldn't see the problem with the gray text on the gray background."

Jerome, San Francisco

"This site doesn't seem very professional, and I'd feel pretty uneasy sending my kid to this ranch."

USER OBSERVATIONS

To get an idea of how RRM's existing site is actually performing, we did some user testing. The participants were all parents/guardians of children, and after giving them a quick rundown of the organization and overview of the Mentor the Child program, I observed as they explored the site.

 

I inquired about their impression of the site, any expectations they may have had going into it, and how they felt about the organization after perusing the website.

SURVEY SAYS...

Our team was also curious to know how parents /guardians feel about mental health when it comes to the children in their care, and their thoughts on therapy. For this, a survey was used to gather quantitative data regarding conversations surrounding mental health, past experience with mental health therapies, and about their level of comfortability with exploring alternative therapy methods. 

83%

Discuss mental health with their children

58%

Would consider alternate therapy methods

41%

Believe equine therapy could possibly be an effective form of mental health support for their children

DEFINE

SYNTHESIZING THE FINDINGS

Piecing together the data, the reoccurring theme seemed to be the question over the legitimacy of the site, and consequently the organization. Many of the users expressed concerns regarding its appearance, accessibility, and general information.

These insights brought us to our problem statement which would serve as our overall guide.....

Lack of efficient and clear information

Unprofessional appearance 

Would not feel comfortable enrolling child in mentorship program

PROBLEM STATEMENT

Parents and Guardians seeking mental health resources for their children need options presented in a professional and trustworthy way in order to feel comfortable exploring them further.

IDEATION

BRAINSTORMING

With our target users and problem now defined, it was time to start brainstorming possible solutions. In an ideation session, we posed questions such as "How might we create a feeling of trustworthiness with the site?" And "How might we improve its professional appearance?" This led to the generation of potential answers.

After sorting through them all, we extracted the key ideas that emerged, and discussed which seemed the most viable. With a mix of considering pros and cons, prioritizing, and some voting, we selected the ideas to move forward with.

PROTOTYPING

WIREFRAMES

Our teams UX Designers, Brittney and Meriel, began crafting wireframes. They restructured the layout of the pages users would navigate when exploring the Mentor the Child program, with the intention of giving them more uniformity and consistency. After turning them into low-fi prototypes, we took them for a user test run to get an idea of how the redesign will work in the real world and identify any potential usability issues. 

The initial test ran smooth, with just a few critiques about menu items and navigation. After some iteration based on the feedback, we continued to build upon the new design.

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VISUAL DESIGN

Lily, our teams Visual Designer, conducted a full out brand refresh, by updating the RRM logo, the color palette, typography, iconography, and imagery.

 

The updates made were based on data collected in the research phase, with the idea of creating a look that better reflected the ranch aesthetic, depicted themes related to mental health (i.e. balance, calm, harmony, safety, growth), and had an overall professional appearance, which would help paint a clearer picture of the services the ranch offers.

HIGH-FIDELITY PROTOTYPE

With the new visual language for the site now defined, we applied it to our wireframes to create a high-fi prototype and do more user testing.

We made several iterations based on feedback, including changes to the color in our menu, as the dark green with the dark background was difficult for users to see, and better highlighting our donate button, as the donate call to action is  very important for a nonprofit organization.

When asked for their impression of the redesign, especially compared to the existing site, users gave the prototype lots of positive feedback, citing what they described as a more professional appearance and trustworthy feel. They felt it was much better in terms of accessibility, and appreciated how it was less text-heavy, and more engaging and eye-catching with the new imagery and branding.

 

It was also noted that users liked the change to the titles in the menus, which they felt were now more easily understood, as well as how there were now “Request more information” options in more places, which is something we did to keep it “front of mind,” and make it as available as possible from just about anywhere on the site.

CONCLUSION

This was a prime example of the impact design can have on the bottom line of organizations and businesses. Considering the kind of service RRM offers, their success not only is affected by how user friendly their website is, but the emotions and level of comfortability of users also play a huge part.

First impressions matter, especially with parents and guardians when they’re making important decisions regarding their children. This organization is doing good things, and it’s important for that message to be effectively communicated. Our team was glad to be able to present some solutions for that.

With additional time, our team would have liked to have moved on to the redesign of the Donation and Volunteer pages, as those are integral to maintaining non-profit organizations. Given their current states, there are design aspects which create barriers likely impacting their performance. We also felt it would be beneficial to integrate a scheduling and payment platform so prospective clients can get booked right away.

 

With such updates to the site, our feeling is that RRM could have more robust membership, and strengthen their outreach program, leading to greater success in their mission.

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