On this solo project over about 10 days I found simple ways to greatly improve the user experience at Auroragov.org.
This was my first UX project. I also had covid during the time I worked on the project. This meant I had to conduct user interviews over zoom. I met my deadline.
During my UX research for AuroraGov.org, I used several methods to discover potential problems people might have when using the website. My research included a Heuristic Evaluation, Competitor Comparisons, User Interviews, Affinity Analysis, and a User Journey Map. After synthesizing the research, I I defined an actionable problem statement, generated solutions and created a Storyboard to explore a potential solution.
During the Heuristic Evaluation the website was compared to 10 principles for interaction design that are known to make user interfaces easy to use. Specifically, the Home page and Contact page of the site were explored for usability flaws.
”Heuristic evaluation is a method for finding usability flaws in a design by judging it relative to known principles for what makes user interfaces easy to use.” —Jakob Nielsen, Ph.D.
I also conducted feature comparison research of three other city government websites. Boulder, Colorado, Tucson, Arizona, and San Francisco, California.
This research highlighted potential ways AuroraGov.org could improve navigation and design to make it easier for users to find what they need.
I interviewed five people who have used and interacted with the AuroraGov site. I posted a request for participants on NextDoor. I used SurveyMonkey to create a screener survey. One participant replied to the NextDoor request. Three interviews were conducted on Zoom, one by telephone, one in person (family member).
For all interviews I used an interview guide with open-ended questions.