Royal College of Nursing
October 2006 - January 2007
The RCN’s web team could see their site had problems, but they needed some hard evidence to back this up. As healthcare expert-in-residence, I got the call-up.
Answers fast
First I needed to understand the RCN’s unusual role as both a trade union and a professional members organisation. How did their members regard these different functions? Were they reflected in the site? Did visitors even know about the excellent content within?
I needed answers, fast, and the best place to find them was with the users.
A persuasive stick
To help connect with the membership I compiled a survey and arranged for it to be hosted it on the site. 150 results gave some great demographic info, and comments began to hint at the dissatisfaction that visitors felt. Next, I contacted 20 of these respondents and interviewed them about their behaviour and frustrations.
completely on their wavelength, I understood exactly what users needed from the site.
As the picture began to come into focus, one-on-one usability sessions confirmed just how badly the site performed. Many users were missing out on valuable info and resources simply because they were impossible to find. If the board needed convincing, my user-testing videos were a persuasive stick to beat them with.
A card sort and sitemap followed. By now, completely on their wavelength, I understood exactly what users needed from the site. I began wireframing.
Fix what’s broken, then get creative
My first task was to fix what was broken. I integrated disparate micro-sites, created navigational consistency, and by making clear the different tasks the site supported, made the dual nature of the organisation explicit. Then I got creative: I added a personalised area, and cross-linked related content so that visitors would be drawn through the site by genuinely relevant and interesting information.
Positive testing
Next, I made a clickable HTML prototype and ran more user-tests. To my delight, the results were overwhelmingly positive. Some particularly lucid participants sailed through the tasks with almost embarrassing ease. I didn’t complain: when logical thinkers can complete tasks with relative ease, it’s a clear validation of a proposal.
I truly consider my clients to be end-users of my output, and I go to great lengths to keep my deliverables comprehensible and usable. That’s taking usability to heart.
Communicating back
All that remained was for me to communicate these findings back to the RCN. This part of the job should not be underestimated. If an information architect is not a good communicator, ideas will be misunderstood, and buy-in can be lost. I truly consider my clients to be end-users of my output, and I go to great lengths to keep my deliverables comprehensible and usable. That’s taking usability to heart.
The RCN liked what they saw. If I was happy with the project, they were ecstatic, praising my work in particular as "absolutely excellent".