The Dragonfly-e Initiative
Client Overview
Dragonfly-e is an organization still in its early start-up phase, dedicated to fighting climate change in a profitable way for the communities they partner with, through the generation of low-carbon biogas fuel and digestate fertilizer via Anaerobic Digestion.
The Challenge
Dragonfly-e is on a mission to reduce carbon emissions from organic waste and decrease energy burdens for municipalities and small businesses in Minnesota and beyond. However, they currently face significant barriers in growing their business:
Education of their methods and their benefits,
A lack of interest or clear understanding of the tangible ‘dollars-and-cents’ cost-saving benefits.
Dragonfly-e’s immediate need is a digital solution to attract customers and education of Dragonfly-e’s mission.
The Solution
Through research findings, testing the existing website with users, and collaborating with fellow UX Designer Liz Torres, I redesigned the customer-facing side of the project by:
Restructuring the layout with the help of an information architecture diagram
Redesigning for an easier, more accessible reading experience.
Research into this field of work to rewrite the content within the website to be more simplified and understandable.
Liz and I sent our findings and recommendations to the client as a final step.
My Roles: User Experience Designer, UX Researcher, UX Team Member
Duration: 3 weeks
Tools: Figma, Sketching, Zoom, Google Sheets/Excel, Whiteboard, Design System
Research Processes: Deep Dive Analysis, Stakeholder Interview, Content Inventory and Audit, Competitive Analysis, Usability Testing, Digital Prototyping
The Process
Phase One : Discovery & Research
Stakeholder Meeting
Because fighting climate change on a major level was new to both me and Liz, scoping out the opportunity space proved to be a tough start to the project. To start things off, Liz and I met with the founder of Dragonfly-e to gain a better perspective on business and project goals, as well getting answers to questions we had about the organization. Listed below were themes surrounding the questions we asked:
What do we KNOW?
What ASSUMPTIONS do we have?
What are some UNKNOWNS that we have questions about?
Content Analysis
I then conducted a Content Inventory and Audit to evaluate the existing content on their website and how important it was, in educating and attracting customers and potential investors.
In addition, I conducted a Competitive Analysis to gain insight to how Dragonfly was educating their customers, COMPARED to their competitors.
Pictured right: Notes taken during the Content Inventory
Thoughts from Thomas:
“Because I wanted to redesign the customer-facing side of the organization, I wanted to see what already exists on the website and how well it educates the user.”
Usability Testing with Primary Target Audiences
Once I came up with my own hypotheses regarding the website’s content efficacy, I collaborated with Liz to conduct Usability Testing with one of their primary audiences– farmers.
This was where I found my toughest challenge of the project– sourcing users, since farmers are busy people.
After MUCH cold-calling and reaching out to my own network of farmers back in Missouri, we were able to source 3 farmers, who all provided great feedback.
All testers agreed that the website had GREAT, INFORMATIVE CONTENT.
However, there was a common problem among all testers, which was…
Delivering the RIGHT message to the RIGHT people at the RIGHT time.
Insight #1—
Users were finding it difficult to read through the mountains of text to access the most important bits of information, and because of that, they weren’t understanding the key points The Dragonfly-e Initiative was trying convey.
Insight #2—
The information on the website needed to emphasize more on the solution and how it benefits customers, in order to increase personal interest in the organization.
Pictured above: A great quote from one of our testers, regarding the existing website.
How Do We Solve These Problems?
I created a prototype with a recommended redesign of the customer-facing side of the project by restructuring the layout with the help of an Information Architecture Diagram, and redesigning for an easier, more accessible reading experience. This also meant doing research into this field of work, in order to rewrite the content within the website to be more simplified and understandable.
I grouped similar ideas, as found in the Content Inventory, into different themes, which would exist on their own page. This will help users with navigating to find information they WANT to read, and not what they HAVE to.
This home page is the meat and potatoes of this project, which contains brief introductions to the main points.
Through much research, I was able to rewrite the website’s content in a more, simplified manner, so that users can skim through, and still understand—
WHAT’S IMPORTANT
WHY THIS IS RELEVANT TO THEM
This brings us to my ultimate goal, the reason behind my prototype:
Conclusion
Next Steps
With more time, we would be able to address further points of opportunity and areas for growth—
Follow up with Client for additional desires and info
Conduct more interviews to solidify findings
Scope out time constraints and budget for implementation of the recommended redesigns
Coordinate with a developer to implement the recommended redesigns
Key Takeaways
By collaborating with fellow UX Designer Liz Torres, we were able to share resources and findings, which sped up our research phase.
In this project, I learned to work in a different manner with a partner to solve a client’s problems, even though Liz Torres and I tackled completely different problem areas.
Because I had to rewrite content to be more simplified and easier to understand, I learned to research and condense information to further a client’s business and project goals.
What I Did
Shared resources with another designer to speed up research and design
Worked closely with another designer to achieve a much larger, singular goal
Conduct secondary research in order to understand pain points and opportunity areas
Visually present design recommendations that support key goals