The Urban Outreach Center NYC

1. The current page title “A small monthly gift can make a huge difference for a hungry neighbor.” does not highlight the impact of monthly monetary donations.
2. Of the four images, the subway ride and button label “Or a $2.75 train ride” do not align with the food focus theme of the page and created some user confusion. This will solve two usability problems:
   • Three participants expected that $2.75 would be an amount option on the donation form page or automatically populated. User 1, commented that “I thought the cost of the train ride $2.75 would be on the actual donation page.”
   • Participants also associated the reference to a subway ride as a service that UOC provided to the homeless and low-income New Yorkers. Therefore creating confusion as to if their donation would be providing subway rides or monetary support for meal distribution.
3. Similar to usability problem 2.a, participants expected the current amount in each button (four) label below each image to automatically populate in the donation form. Three participants found the five different buttons “redundant” since they took them to the same donation form.

1. Highlight the impact of monthly donations, the researchers suggest adding language from the donation form page “$1=5 meals” to the “Give Monthly” page above the images. This will help imply that monetary donations will go towards providing meals to the Urban Outreach community in need.
2. Remove the image of the subway ride and align the images of the pizza, the latte, and the meal.
3. Turn the buttons into updated captions: “Donate the cost of a dollar slice”, “Donate the cost of a $5 latte”, “Donate the cost of a whole dinner out to support a food-insecure neighbor”
4. One large button below the captions. “DONATE MONTHLY FOR A HUNGRY NEIGHBOR”

The current landing page lacks any form of signifier of the presence of more content being on the page.

Participants did not consistently scroll down on the homepage and later expressed that they did not realize there was more content below, and that they did not realize could scroll down in the first place.

As a result, participants were unable to identify the severity or the prevalence of the problem of hunger, the impact that Urban Outreach has had, nor the process and stance taken by Urban Outreach.

Add an additional navigation menu to the left side of the page, that links to the different groups of content within each page.

The addition of these elements:

• Functions as a signal to the user that there is more content on the page prompting them to scroll or otherwise engage with the content
• Provide users with an overview of the contents of the page
• Allow users to more easily find and navigate to specific pieces of content or information.

The labeling and information architecture of homepage navigational buttons confused participants when searching for specific information.

The website was designed with large and clear buttons that create great call-to-actions moments for the users to both: get involved and get more information, however, several participants misinterpreted the meaning of buttons and found the hierarchy of information confusing. Specifically:

1. “Give Meals to Hungry Neighbors” button located in the center of the homepage was misinterpreted as a volunteer opportunity instead of “General Donation”, where the button leads to. It caused confusion about the difference between the “Give Meals to Hungry Neighbors” button and the “Volunteer” button below.

   “I thought that this (the “Give Meals to Hungry Neighbors” button) means that I can cook actual meals for them.”
   –Mobile Participant 2

2. The buttons in the navigation bar serves two types of audience: people who want to learn more and get engaged with donation and volunteering and people who are looking for services. The grouping and labeling of these buttons confused participants when trying to access information when having a specific need in mind. Several participants did not consistently think to associate the “Learn” button with the mission and vision information provided.

   Since the website serves mainly to those who are looking to learn more about the organization as well as to get involved, the hierarchy order of the buttons in the navigation bar should also follow the main purpose of the website.

To better the experience of a user trying to navigate and access information on the website, our team has synthesized the following recommendations according to our three findings:

1. Relabel the “Give Meals to Hungry Neighbors” button to “Donate” or any wording that is easily understandable as a button that leads to the donation page so that people are welcomed to the homepage with two main options: donate and volunteer, to get engaged with the organization.
2. Relabel the “Learn” button to “About Us” to ensure clear communication of the content that it is leading to. Prioritize the “About Us” button as the first button in the navigation bar as it is the introduction page for those people who are trying to learn more before getting engaged.
3. Combine the two donation buttons: “Give Monthly” and “Donate Now” into one single button “Donate” as a way to group similar information.
4. Clearly distinguish the content for different audiences (people looking to learn and engage and people looking for services) by grouping and styling the buttons “Learn”, “Donate”, “Volunteer” differently from “Get Food + Services”.