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0800 Kidsline

mobile website redesign

Background
The first week of my UX/UI Design course, we were each to chose a website to redesign. After a few days of scouring the net, I came across `0800 Kidsline'; Kidsline is a New Zealand non-profit organisation that provides phone counselling services for New Zealand children and teenagers. Aesthetically it's clear that the website needs work, but more importantly, crucial information lacks clarity. For a service that helps vulnerable young people, it's imperative that the website is succinct and kid-friendly.

Original Website

01. EMPATHISE
As I had decided to overhaul the design rather than make tweaks, step one was about understanding how people in general approach websites: how do they navigate a site? will they stay on a site for information even if the design clearly has flaws? I chose to keep my audience broad at this stage as the website is for people of all ages: children, teens, and parents.
However, I used a usability test to gain insights from other users, which confirmed my assumptions and allowed me to see the website from different perspectives.
METHOD
Online survey:
KEY FINDINGS
  • Users rarely use bottom menus, thus internal links need to be included on the top menu.
  • Aesthetic design of a website was considered important to very important by users. 
Usability Test and Interview of current website:
  • The design is random; text and images don't match.
  • It's not kid-friendly.
  • Information is contradictory; is the service 24/7 or 16:00 - 21:00 Monday-Friday? 
Research of Kidsline:
  • Kidsline is a service for young people by senior school student volunteers; "buddies" are trained by professionals. 
  • It's a non-profit that relies on donations and sponsors for support. It was created by a young man who had used another phone line counselling service himself and wondered why there wasn't one specifically for young people.
  • They accept phone calls only; no current opportunities for an online chat service.
  • 0800 Kidsline is a counselling phone service in New Zealand; NZ has the highest youth suicide rate in the OECD therefore this service is essential to help reduce that rate. 
02. DEFINE
The next step was to synthesise the research and start defining solutions. I love Affinity Diagrams as they help to categorise the data and identify popular trends. Further, I needed to define the problem for the main target - young people.
Choosing to direct the ongoing design process for a young audience was a no-brainer, if adults struggled with the sites content and navigation how could kids be expected to benefit from it? And as a proud New Zealander myself, this was a project that I was personally invested in.
METHOD
KEY FINDINGS
Affinity Diagram:
  • Top menu needs navigation priority.

  • Design - too much text; images don't match; looks "sloppy".

  • Clear, concise information - contact hours should not be contradictory.

  • Age appropriate - age images, cut text.

03. IDEATE
It was time to transforming the research into possible solutions. I began by looking at desktop solutions before realising the challenge was for the mobile version, so I quickly changed tracks. 
 

To generate ideas for a kids version of the site I look to McDonalds Happy Meals, Lego, and Barbie websites for inspiration. Keeping in mind that Kidsline does not have a 'fun' purpose I also looked to other similar services around the world such as www.childline.org.uk.

As this is a New Zealand service I started looking for Maori designs and motifs; the indigenous culture of NZ and braced by all. More than just giving the site a unique identity, the symbolism could be supportive of the users. Unfortunately, the idea feel flat on my non-New Zealand mentors.

04. PROTOTYPE

The design stage went through a few iterations in order to get it right. It's important to note the restraints that I was working with. 

  1. As this is a design I want to offer to Kidsline, I wanted to keep their words as much as possible however I did cull more than half of the text. Text chosen for elimination was based on lack of coherency or repetitiveness.

  2. The focus for this version is for children so although images and fun icons were a must, the subject matter is sensitive and that needed to be taken into consideration. Therefore, although I went with design features fit for children, I switched from colours to a blue, black, and white palette to keep with the serious theme.

05. TEST

The final design had gone through considerable changes; the colour palette had been reduced significantly, there was less blue, the text had gone through more cuts, and first screen was now the kids home page as opposed to a screening page.

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