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There is a popular saying, “a problem well stated is a problem half-solved”. This quote echoes my thoughts around UX audits.
I find myself passionate about UX audits as they are a great opportunity to share my ideas around improvements and offer constructive feedback. So, when I had the opportunity to deliver one for Trillion Trees - a partnership whose mission resonates with me - to understand how they can achieve better digital experiences for their users, I was ecstatic.
In a world where digital experiences shape our interactions, the importance of a UX audit cannot be overstated. Founded in 2016, Trillion Trees has been a beacon of hope in global reforestation efforts by not only protecting and restoring forests all over the world, but also helping people cultivate a digital oasis by effortlessly contributing to a greener planet via online donations. Trillion Trees is the united force of BirdLife International, Wildlife Conservation Society and WWF.
In order to begin the UX audit, I created a benchmark list which contained the parameters I would be gauging the Trillion Trees website by. With help from the beloved Nielsen Norman group article, the major criterias we used were; Information Architecture, Usability & Brand Experience, Feedback and Consistency.
Without further ado, let’s get into it!
When we first met with Trillion Trees, we discussed any problems they felt their users were encountering and from there we were able to select their Donations feature as an area to focus on for this review.
Although the donation page was easy to find on the website, we identified that there was room for improvement within the user journey flow (for both corporate and individual donors) to ensure a seamless and pleasant experience.
To understand these improvements and how to maximise the donation potential, we looked at similar organisations within the UK and worldwide to analyse their end-to-end experience.
The evaluation against Trillion Trees’ current donation method was done on two levels; Heuristics and Donations experience.
While their current experience was user-friendly, we found areas for improvement that Trillion Trees could take advantage of in order to deliver better experiences that would, in turn, lead to more donations and enhance supporter retention.
I believe that the delivery of an experience starts at the beginning, from a good onboarding experience; if it’s done well, it can set the stage to welcome new and existing users into your platform.
From the perspective of a potential donor, I set about analysing Trillion Trees’ current onboarding journey. From this, I encountered an experience that felt a little tangled and I realised that with just a bit of simplification and unravelling they could improve the user drop off rate and keep donors engaged from the very first click.
The Trillion Trees partnership implements a wide range of activities in the forest protection & restoration space which, although brilliant, means they have a lot of information to display on their website.
I donned my UX hat to capture any areas of opportunity that could help streamline the experience for users - such as the page-to-page flow - and highlighted how Trillion Trees could benefit from a more intuitive user experience with added testimonials, interactive elements, and messaging to reinforce the trust between the user and Trillion Trees.
Storytelling and user engagement are intertwined, working hand-in-hand with each other. By refining and optimising the content on their website for clarity and relevance; I highlighted ways that Trillion Trees can help users connect more deeply with their cause and nurture a sense of fulfilment in their users.
For example, the user journey for corporate donors felt different and fragmented when compared to the individual donor journey. One way to help lessen this disparity would be to improve consistency with the visual design to ensure both sets of users are experiencing a similar, and therefore trusted, experience.
Doing a UX audit also opens your eyes to areas of your offering that you might not have thought of before. Despite what you might think, the donor journey doesn’t end once the user has successfully paid. There are other things to consider for retention and brand awareness, such as the journey post-donation.
We discussed with the Trillion Trees team how, in the big picture, the donation confirmation process is just as important; the emails and confirmation of receipt that highlight to the user the completion of their donation but also the clear communication and updates on how their donation has helped towards their cause can also reinforce trust.
The importance of accessibility in design cannot be overstated and often it’s small changes that can make a huge difference. Optimising for mobile devices and ensuring that every user, regardless of their device or ability, can experience the Trillion Trees website in a fun and engaging way is important. But pairing that with minor changes such as adding visual cues, alt text to images, as well as clarity in copy would help to ensure that a huge portion of users would feel more included and inclined to finish their donation journeys.
A great digital experience is incomplete without ample feedback loops and usability testing to ensure that your users are always at the centre of changes and innovation.
We suggested to the Trillion Trees team how to do this effectively, with calls to action for filling out a form or survey as well as testing more directly with relevant users to understand their thoughts and feelings around the journey.
However, user feedback in design doesn’t just relate to gathering qualitative and quantitative insights. The product itself also needs to demonstrate feedback to the user and their actions; the microinteractions. This can be many things, such as when your cursor changes to indicate you’re hovering over a button, or underlining text to show a hyperlink, and they all play a major role in user experience and should be considered just as equally.
Turning Trillion Trees’ already well-designed website into an excellent one is just a few tweaks away. There are small areas for improvement within their intricate information architecture that could make the overall user experience better. But, it’s important to remember that less is sometimes more. By simplifying the user flow for donors, Trillion Trees would be able to streamline the process and strengthen their bond with their users, ultimately creating even more impact in this space and hopefully generating more funds for this very worthwhile cause.
All it takes is setting aside some time to step back and reflect before beginning the process. Afterall, “a problem well stated is a problem half-solved”.
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Disclaimer: This UX audit research was based on evaluations and reflects findings and recommendations at the time of review.
We absolutely loved working with Trillion Trees and want to say a big thank you to their team for trusting us to do this work and for being so receptive to our feedback and suggestions.
If you're a registered charity and are interested in a complimentary UX review of your digital product, please get in touch.
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