Defining UX
User experience (UX) refers to the holistic experience that someone has with your nonprofit organization. It’s already happening - people are having SOME kind of experience with your nonprofit. What kind of experience do you want them to have? How do you want them to feel?
User experience includes all interactions an individual has with an organization.
This is everything from first learning about an organization to being in a relationship with it. This relationship could be as a participant, donor, applicant, student, etc.
Explaining UX Designers
UX designers tend to focus on your tech, for example, your website, app, or other digital tool. But service design is also part of UX. It includes both non-tech interactions and whatever processes are happening "behind the scenes."
A UX designer helps craft experiences to be positive ones. Marketing, operations, and other parts of a nonprofit organization all affect UX too. In that sense, UX is a part of everyone’s job. (I know, did you really need one more thing on your plate to do?)
Before you think this is beyond you or overwhelming, know that most of us have done UX work in the past. Have you ever thrown any type of party? A birthday party for a friend or family member? A housewarming? Then you were a UX designer for that event. You might have:
Chosen the tasty refreshments and set them up on tables
Organized furniture so people could have comfortable seats
Helped people find the bathrooms or trash/recycle bins
Made introductions of people and topics that you thought would be appreciated
Watched whether people were having a good time
Moved around items during the party to make them easier to find
UX designers do the same sorts of things for your website and beyond. Great UX is about including everyone in the party and helping people to…
do what they want to do
while using your tech successfully
and having a good time!
Sometimes, that can be a challenging order. That’s why there’s a field focused on UX. Thinking about a website, a UX designer might do things like:
Choose the content to resonate with the target audiences
Organize the site structure and search so people can find items quickly
Help with wayfinding through crosslinking and great navigation
Introduce related content that might add value
Watch various people use the website to see how easy it is
Make design changes based on observations, analytics, and other research
UX design vs website design
What distinguishes UX designers from traditional web designers? UX designers conduct research with real users. This is the distinguishing factor with UX people. It’s not UX design without research involved. You have to see what people do on a website and adjust. Just like at a party, if someone was having trouble finding the drinks, you wouldn't tell them, "Good luck with that." Would you? No way. I know you would be helpful. Too often we let people suffer online though. We need to treat visitors kindly, just like we would in person.
Research is REALLY important to make informed design decisions. It’s easy to make assumptions because we are biased and self-focused. But there is lots of public research available to help us. There are free and low-cost tools out there to see how people use our website. With some mindfulness, we can affect people’s experience positively. Small changes, for example, making text-user friendly, do make a difference. There’s no excuse for bad user experience on nonprofit websites anymore.
UX Design for Nonprofits
Nonprofits need to really focus on particular areas of user experience that might be less important for a traditional company selling widgets. For example,
Trust is #1 for nonprofits. Nonprofits need a trustworthy and professional presence for people to engage with them and/or give them money. We can design for trust - there’s research available on this and more coming out all the time.
Transparency is also critical for nonprofit organizations. Some people may be ok purchasing products without exactly knowing who or how they are made. But when it comes to giving money or receiving services, most people want more information. Being as transparent as possible builds trust, familiarity, and comfort with people. This means “About” pages and access to information are critical.
How Do I Get Started?
What kind of experience do YOU want people who visit your nonprofit website to have? One approach is to, pick one website area that you know is problematic and start there. It’s ok to start small. For example, fix your broken links.
If you haven’t already, get your 3 FREE UX Lessons to Dramatically Improve Your Nonprofit Website.
Next, join our Facebook learning community, UX for Nonprofits, to keep learning. It’s a worthwhile effort to improve the UX of your nonprofit organization. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact me.
