Aching for Acres
- Denise Pinto
- Jun 22, 2019
- 4 min read
Updated: Mar 16, 2021
We were really for aching for Acres as we had to tackle an Information Architecture (IA) project.
“We presented an interactive prototype to show how our design met the needs of our target personas and aligned with the goals and brand of the organisation.”
Introduction to Acres
The Animal Concerns Research & Education Society (ACRES) is a Singapore-based charity and an Institution of Public Character (IPC) with the aim of ending animal cruelty. Their vision is to create a world where animals are treated with compassion and respect and to foster respect and compassion for all animals.
Their objectives are:
To improve the living conditions and welfare of animals in captivity.
To educate people on lifestyle choices which do not involve the abuse of animals and are environment-friendly.
Preliminary Research
My teammates and I perused the website to gain a deeper understanding of what the possible issues are and focusing on the content and information architecture.
We obtained our initial findings by using a competitive analysis, heuristic evaluation, site mapping and content auditing.
These are our major takeaways.
Messy navigation & organisation of content
Complexity of the donation and volunteer process
Information density
ACRES has a comparatively wide IA
ACRES had 11 at the top level
Most competitors have 5-8 at the top level
Examples of the confusing donation process and information dumping without progressive disclosure on the respective sections.
Secondary Research - Cause for confusion
We decided to interview 10 people who were interested in animal advocacy and volunteerism. We tasked them with using a contextual inquiry and survey. Their tasks were to:
1. Find out more ACRES and what are their key areas of concern.
2. Make a one time donation to ACRES.
3. Find out more about volunteering and the opportunities available at ACRES.
4. Find out more about TCM and the effects it has on the wildlife trade.
Using an affinity map to synthesise our data, I came up with two personas to get an idea of their behaviours, goals and needs.
We also conducted a tree testing and card sorting to find out more about navigational issues. The deeper problem was users were not able to find what they wanted due to the clutter of information, and when they thought they found it, it was still incorrect because users didn't understand how they were categorised.
Our initial findings from our primary research were validated and these were the additional key problems and findings.
Confusion between Awareness, Outreach and Campaigns.
Using card sorting, users classified information into 4 main clusters:
About,
Education/Wildlife,
Contribute/Support Us/Join Us,
Contact Us
Sorting through the mess
With the consolidated research findings from the users and bearing in mind the business objectives of the organisation, we conducted a content prioritisation to find the balance that fulfils both the users and business goals.
Since Acres’s main objectives is to educate people about animal welfare and advocacy, we felt it was important to concentrate on the campaign and focus areas where the bulk of the information was placed and caused the most confusion. To cater to users needs, we focused on the donation and volunteer process.
Information Architecture - Narrow and dense verses broad and sparse.
The three major challenges we faced with the information architecture were:
1. Prioritising destination pages
2. Consolidating top level navigation
3. Unified donation process
Our findings from the card sorting also showed that users sorted 'Awareness' and 'Outreach' into one header.
We consolidated all the information from 'Campaigns' and 'Focus Areas' into one folder titled 'Focus Area' as there was repeated content.
To deal with the problem of overwhelming the user with information, we prioritised key destination pages on the header. We shifted the denser sections on the side navigation.
Links to related content were created to reduce the number of clicks to find relevant information.
The donation process was streamlined for the user's ease. By adding a progress bar, it would manage the users expectation and how long the donation process would take. This would not intimidate first time users to the process. Fixed amount donations were displayed to control user's decision making when it came to choosing how much to donate.
Content Architecture - Overcoming Density
Content density was simplified by:
providing a variety of layouts to prolong/diversify visual interest in content heavy articles
establishing a defined hierarchy between headers and the main copy
modularising the layout of text and images.
Responsive Design Strategy
We used a grid system to display our content.
For the landing page, we focused on 'about acres' to increase awareness about the organisation. Their hotline number was included as they received numerous calls for animal rescue. We wanted users to access their hotline quickly via the mobile version.
For the donation page and the footer, we used a 3 grid system for the website and consolidated the information into a 1 grid system for the mobile version.
To validate our research, we used a SUS based on the 10 users we interviewed. Our results were:
As we only had two weeks to finish this project, given more time we would have liked to:
Refine and reduce copy.
Unified volunteer sign-up process.
Further development on donation methods.
Social media presence, events pages, and other features down the feature prioritization list.
Stakeholder inputs (Prioritising content and Organising content)
Admittedly I didn't know a lot about IA going into this project and so I was given a supportive role. Given another chance and with the knowledge I have gained, I would have focused more on the content layout and responsive design.
Credit to my teammates Kyle and Edmund for taking the lead and supporting me through this project.
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