"Creating a space for business women to connect and learn"
In the business world, women continue to participate on an unequal basis with men. Globally women in senior management only stands at 24%. Ruby Connection is a place where business women can network and learn with each other. Creating a hub of knowledge that empowers women through connection.
MY ROLE
This project took place in early 2015, where I contributed as the sole UX / UI Designer.
My vision was to create a place where women could gain knowledge, share ideas and network with each other.
I was responsible for leading requirement & ideation workshops with clients, user research, creating personas/archetypes, task models, wireframes, prototyping, information architecture, content strategy, art direction, testing and UI design.
Discovery
Business Requirements
Research
Persona / Archetype
Analytics
Design
Sketching
Wireframing
Prototype
Validation
User Testing
Amends
UI Design
Visual Design
Usability Review
CASE STUDIES
Through workshop and research, the insight that was discovered was - business women were time poor. From working mothers to professions that demanded long hours - women had little time to wade through content. Research indicates people read and consume content online by scanning and skimming a page, looking for highlighted keywords, meaningful headings, short paragraphs and a scannable list. Since most people are in a hurry to find the content that is relevant to them, they will skip what is irrelevant to them.
Networking is essential for professional women, providing a great source of connections, which opened doors to other business women - that otherwise wouldn’t be easy to communicate with. This is an essential tool for lead generation and meeting influencers. It’s about connecting with people who can become your clients or refer clients to you. It’s about letting people know: Who are you? What do you do? What are the possibilities that you envision.
Women wishing to raise their media profile as an expert in their field through thought leadership and expanding their brand. Sharing relevant content in their network, highlighting their services and special offers.
2
3
To create a ‘front page’ moment for Ruby Connection - to highlight the important stories for their membership.
1
3
2
Content topics are colour coded so a user can scan a page easily to find content that is relevant to them.
In a usability study, Gerry McGovern discovered that only 1 out of 15 users could locate a specific piece of information that was not scannable.
Each content panel has a date when published, to show the user that the content is the “latest” and to add authority to the article - the author is clearly shown. A share button easily accessible underneath.
4
4
The widgets hierarchy were determined by the business requirements of Westpac. Marketing required a strong social media presence with equal weighting to Twitter and Facebook.
Homepage
“Ruby of the Month” panel is placed in a prominent position to encourage personas - wanting to raise their professional media profile as an authority in their industry, to engage in the website.
1
5
5
The navigation was also colour coded into categories, making it easy for users to find what they wanted by creating a compass of colour.
Concise, scannable content resulted in 124% better usability.
Navigation points were organised into defined categories using the card sorting technique.
6
Rather than being taken to a separate page to “Login” and answering a long list of contact information requirements. Streamline the process so the user can sign in easily - removing any barriers and keeping it simple and seamless.
Offering alternative sign in option with LinkedIn gives the user one less password to remember and strengthens the correlation with a popular career networking site.
6
1
Content topics are colour coded so a user can scan a page easily to find content that is relevant to them.
Article Page
2
Located under the navigation, to keep the user engaged “Next Article” & “Previous Article” if the current content is not what they are looking for.
1
2
3
As the user scrolls through the content, the sticky navigation header changes to show a quick summary of the article - category, date of article and heading.
Research shows that Sticky Menu are 22% quicker to navigate.
When the user wishes to share the article, all the relevant information is close at hand to tweet or comment, as it has not disappeared at the top of the page. This functionality is to aid the user when they share information.
The navigation returns when the user scrolls back to the top.
3
4
4
The content is further book marked with a sticky footer. It has 3 main call-to-action for ease of use - share content, print content for further analysis and subscribe.
Rather than placing “subscribe” at the beginning of an article - where the user has not formed an emotional bond with the website, the user is more likely to subscribe once they had read content they enjoyed it and found it relevant.
Member's Page
1
This page is about Networking. The first thing you are greeted with on the member’s page is the ability to “Search and Connect” with other members.
The filter is placed in an accordion, so that it does not overwhelm the user initially with too many choices.
Each field has a focus state to help the user fill out the form easily.
