Overview

The Publishers Association website has not been redesigned since its launch 6 years ago. Working for Precedent Digital Agency I lead the digital transformation of The Publishers Association website improving the functionality and usability to meet user’s expectations.

Goal

Add value to the membership programme through the digital transformation of The Publishers Association website.

Duration

4 months

Onboard

The project had started six months previously and with a different team because of this I had concerns about the validity of the previous work. I read the outputs from a technical requirements workshop and four personas. The statement of work and the prescribed process did not match the client’s problem space. I met with the Project Manager to address this.

The member’s personas were interested in downloading research reports and resources. The Publishers Association had over 500 downloadable PDF documents scattered across their website.

My hypothesis

By making it easier for members to find and download research reports users would see more value in their membership.

User Journey Map

To understand the current user journey of the website I combined the technical requirement workshop outputs with persona needs. I then went through the current Publishers Association website to create eight user journey maps. There was not much transferable information from the workshop documentation, I used a mixture of the technical outputs and general good UX principles to complete the user journey maps.

Client Presentation

To get feedback from the client on the validity of the work previously done I presented the user journey maps. Some of the requirements from the technical requirements workshop had changed which impacted potential design solutions. I changed the process to allow for collaboration with the client. The new process would require client sign-off as deliverables were completed.

Iterate Process

To keep the team and the clients in the loop I communicated the benefits of the new process to them. They were happy that I had listened to the issues. I updated the technical requirements and iterated the eight user journey maps.

Information Architecture

To inform the information architecture I used the eight user journeys to create and test a tree jack test. This allowed me to test my hypothesis by putting all of the downloadable reports and resources in one place. As we were testing the information architecture with only eight participants it was important to also get quantitative feedback.

Usability Test

I created a questionnaire for participants to complete before the information architecture tasks. The information architecture test showed that users saw the ‘policy and research’ section as a home for research reports and resources.

Wireframes

The Publishers Association wireframes were based on the information I had gathered from the client and users. I designed one page to house the over 500 downloadable PDF documents and gave users a search and filter functionality to narrow down the results.

Usability Test

I completed desktop and mobile wireframes and created a clickable prototype. I also wrote a topic guide for the testing sessions. Participants understood my design solution for the research reports. The signposting and affordances of the wireframes were also a big improvement.

Delivery

I presented the feedback from the user testing sessions to the client. They were very happy with the results. We agreed on some final tweaks to the rest of the wireframes and then I worked with a UI designer to finalise the designs.