Next 10
Overview
Next10 sought to redesign their website to better establish themselves as an authoritative source on pressing policy issues in California.
My Role
I was the sole UX Designer working with a project manager and developer.
- UX analysis (content inventory and audit, user journeys, personas, sort, site map, and wireframes)
- Hi-fi prototyping
- Design (website and branding)
The Challenge
Next10 had ambitious plans for their redesign but a limited budget. Together, we narrowed the focus of our work to the pages whose redesign would have the most impact on their user’s experience.
Goals
- Clear user flows to publications and related features.
- A clear understanding of Next10 mission’s
- Increase traffic to the publication pages
Outcome
“Overall, everyone was very happy with the end result. I think we felt like this brought our site up to date and in line with peer organizations and improved our image and ability to present the depth and breadth of our work in a credible and professional way.”
Disclosure
Due to the nature of the project, only select information can be shared.
Strategy
discovery
In the discovery phase, we utilized a client questionnaire and content inventory to define Next 10’s user needs, business goals, and pain points. We corroborated our conclusions with data from Google analytics and stakeholder and user feedback.
User Needs
- Access to updated information.
- Clear user flows to publications and related features.
Business Requirements
- A clear understanding of Next10 mission’s.
- Increase traffic to publication pages.
pain points
- The search did not filter updated reports.
- Hard to find graphics, pdfs, and related publications.
Needs of the users
Next10 provides educational tools and expert-authored policies on the economy and technical research. People interested in reading these articles are looking for credible and detailed information. We identified three target personas with distinct goals whose experiences navigating the site would help uncover pain points and gaps in the user’s experience.
Given the constraints of Next10’s timeline and budget, we conducted an internal mapping process instead of soliciting feedback from external users. We used each persona’s profile to map a hypothetical journey through the Next10 website, uncovering the points at which the users would drop off or get stuck.
Site Map
Information gathered in the discovery and define phases was used to create a revised and simplified site map. This also helped define the scope of the redesign and the team’s strategy.
Iterations
Home page Wireframe
Original Design
Wireframe
Publication landing Wireframe
Original Design
Wireframe
Publication node Wireframe
Original Design
Wireframe
Execution
Next 10 color palette was yellow, black and tan. I added simple primary and secondary colors, purple, blue, and green, to give the site a little more life. The colors defined their three main topics, energy, budget, and economy & governance.
The redesign was limited to select pages. I worked within the original website theme and layouts to produce a design that facilitated access to publications and increased time spent on the website while blending the new pages with the old ones.
Home page final design
Reflections
This redesign had a tight timeline and limited budget. Nonetheless, we managed to update the site from Drupal 7 to Drupal 8, restructured and reorganized the publications, and added a new search and filter system. I recently followed-up with the Next10 team about the site’s performance in the three years since the relaunch. I am pleased to report that the site is working well and continues to meet their needs.
“The redesign brainstorming process was incredibly helpful to help not only organize our own thoughts, goals, constraints, etc – but to get stakeholder buy in for why changes were needed, what purpose they would serve, and how best to make improvements. Great job, all around. Couldn’t be happier.”
– Colleen Kredell, Director of Research Next10.org
