UX Techniques
Content Audit
About
A content audit is an essential step for any redesign project involving significant content, such as a website or intranet. While it may seem like a tedious task, skipping it could lead to missed insights and poor outcomes. In a content audit, you’ll compile a comprehensive list of all content on the site, from pages to files and media, typically in a spreadsheet.
Content audits generally fall into three categories:
Full Content Inventory: Every content item, page, and asset on the site.
Partial Content Inventory: A focused list, like top levels of a site or recent articles.
Content Sample: Example content to give a general overview.
This process helps not only in cataloging content but also in discovering duplicates, spotting gaps, and gaining a deeper understanding of the content structure. The information you collect—such as page titles, URLs, content types, and last updated dates—serves as a foundational tool for rethinking information architecture, coordinating with content authors, and planning for a new CMS.
Starting with the main pages, you can build out sub-pages and continue section by section. This step-by-step approach ensures thoroughness, especially on larger sites. Additionally, leveraging tools within a CMS can streamline the process. Although it may take time, a well-executed content audit provides the insights needed to make informed design decisions that align with both user needs and business goals.
Ref: https://uxmastery.com/how-to-conduct-a-content-audit/
Workshop Exercise
Create a new Spreadsheet.
Define Key Columns:
Page Title: The displayed title on the page – helps identify the content easily.
Content Type: The category of the content, such as blog post, FAQ, or product page – helps with content categorisation.
URL: The link to the page – provides quick access for review.
Notes: Additional observations or action items – captures insights and next steps.
Fill in the Records for each site page.
Personas
About
Personas are representations of your key customer types, answering the question, “Who are we designing for?” To create personas, start by gathering data on your customers, organising insights into categories like industry, device use, goals, and time of day. Use spreadsheets or affinity diagrams to find common patterns and differences.
Next, identify people who fit these clusters and conduct interviews, ideally in-person or via video chat, to learn from their experiences. Analyse your findings, noting shared traits, and refine personas as needed. Once you have distinct personas, give them names and memorable characteristics to make them relatable.
Use personas to guide design decisions and keep them visible to foster a shared understanding among your team. Remember, personas should evolve over time—revisit and update them as necessary to keep them relevant and insightful.
Ref: uxmastery.com/create-ux-personas
Workshop Exercise
Use a suitable Persona Template to define the following information.
Aim to define 3 - 5 different personas.
Affinity Diagramming
About
Affinity diagramming is a UX technique used to group and organise research findings or to categorise design ideas. This method fosters team alignment and helps identify themes that inform the design process, making it an invaluable tool during ideation workshops.
In UX, affinity diagramming can be applied to various stages, such as initial research or final design refinement. It’s particularly useful for analysing user feedback, organising ideas from brainstorming sessions, or developing a strategy.
Benefits of Affinity Diagramming include:
Encourages Team Collaboration: It ensures everyone’s voice is heard and helps develop a shared understanding of user needs.
Simplifies Complex Data: By grouping similar information, it transforms a large amount of data into manageable, actionable themes.
Provides Direction for Design Decisions: Prioritising clusters helps focus on critical areas, supporting effective decision-making.
Affinity diagramming helps teams break down complex information into actionable insights, fostering collaboration and ensuring that decisions are informed by collective understanding.
Ref: nngroup.com/articles/affinity-diagram
Workshop Exercise
The process involves three main steps:
Generate Ideas as Sticky Notes: Team members write down observations or ideas on individual sticky notes. This step is about gathering diverse inputs quickly, so it’s essential to avoid overanalysing.
Organise Notes into Clusters: Once notes are generated, they are grouped by similarity into clusters. This allows teams to spot emerging themes and patterns.
Prioritise Clusters and Plan Next Steps: Finally, the team reviews each cluster, prioritises them, and discusses action items, creating a clear path forward.
Interviews & Surveys
Steps
Recruit Participants: Define Target Audience that represent each user groups we want to interview that align with our Personas.
Set Criteria for Selection: Identify criteria based on demographics, behaviours, or any other relevant factors.
Recruitment Channels: At this stage we can focus on community outreach such as community forums, social media, or local organisations. Or we can send an email invitation. We could also look at using platforms like UserTesting for recruiting participants, but this would be a last resort. As discussed, we should consider offering a small incentive, and it could be as small as a free coffee voucher for your new cafe, this would be a great way to promote and attract people to it, alternatively we can resort to gift cards, or early access to the Dawah Centre launch event.
Prepare Interview Questions: Define objectives and what it is we want to learn from the interviews and surveys, focussing on exploring participants’ experiences, pain points, and expectations. Example questions: “Can you describe a recent experience when you used [product/service]? What worked well, and what didn’t?” or “What are the main challenges you face when [performing a specific task]?”
Design Survey Questions: Use a mix of question types, such as multiple-choice, Likert scale, and open-ended questions, for varied insights. Example survey questions: “How satisfied are you with [feature]?” or “What additional features would you like to see?”
Pilot Test the Questions: Before conducting the interviews and surveys, test the questions with a small group to ensure they are clear and gather relevant insights.
Conducting User Interviews: Coordinate interview times with participants, and decide whether the interview will be conducted in person, over the phone, or via video call. Make participants feel at ease by explaining the purpose of the interview, and reassure them that their responses are confidential. Start with introductory questions to build rapport. Follow the guide but remain flexible; encourage participants to share insights beyond your questions. Obtain consent to record the interview, and take notes to capture key points. After each interview, note down key observations and insights. This will help in drawing connections between different interviews.