Post Leeuwarden 2018
Voluntaire online archive for editorial staff
UX/UI Designer – Graduation project
Post Leeuwarden 2018 is a non-commercial press agency that produces articles together with journalistic volunteers, which can be freely used by other media channels.
The press agency did not yet have its own website or a means to showcase their articles. For a while, they had been considering the idea of an online database and/or archive to make their articles more searchable and accessible.
They approached me via a network of volunteers..
For this project, I employed Scrum methodology to complement my design thinking.
Research and Mock-up/Concept
Through a Card-Sorting session with the client, a clearer understanding of the task was achieved, and goals were formulated for the project.
Project goal:
To make it possible to unlock an archive in an easy and creative way. Based on the needs of specific users.
To ensure a successful design, it’s crucial to grasp the nuances of the target audience. Recognizing that “All media channels” encompasses too broad a group, research aimed to refine this target.
Originally, a survey was planned, but insufficient participation led to a shift in strategy. Instead, a select portion of the target audience agreed to engage in conversations. Conducting in-depth interviews with this subset offered valuable insights. This method facilitates a deeper understanding of the audience’s needs and allows for greater empathy towards them.
In addition to studying the target audience, we also analyzed the archive structure and compared email marketing software options.
The insights gained from this research inspired various design concepts, which we then visualized as mock-ups and shared with both end users and the client.
Research and Wireframe
After consulting with the end users and the client, we selected a mock-up. In this mock-up, the option to subscribe to a newsletter and receive update emails* was a key feature. Further development of the mock-up required more knowledge of email marketing.
This was because the target audience, consisting of editorial staff from small local businesses, is accustomed to receiving article proposals via email. Most of them have created a special email account for this purpose.
Every day, long lists of proposals come in. Within these, the newsletter and update emails* from the Online Collection need to stand out. Therefore, the CMS was developed to make it easy for the client to send effective emails.
The CMS has the following features to support email marketing:
- Maintaining contact lists;
- 2 different email templates (which have been tested);
- Managing update emails;
- Can be linked to an email marketing system for newsletters.
To accomplish the tasks mentioned above, we followed these steps:
- A/B test for the email templates;
- Further exploration in email marketing;
- Target group research;
- Navigation Card-Sorting sessions;
- Navigation Tree sessions.
All this was translated into a wireframe for both the front-end and back-end, then tested for user-friendliness. Following the testing phase, we renamed the title from “article archive” to “Online Collection,” and the “Update email*” function was relabeled as “Alert email*” .
Design and Testing
After testing the wireframe, we proceeded to work on the graphic design. This contributed to enhancing the accessibility of the Online Collection. The style was chosen based on feedback from the client and end users, collected from 2 mood boards.
The entire Online Collection was then evaluated for usability. Based on this evaluation, final adjustments were made. As a result, the design was finalized into both a functional document and a graphic document.
