Originating in Washington D.C., NaijaDC is an organization of 250+ Nigerian professionals, young and old. The purpose of the organization is to unite the prestigious group's base to help advocate for social movements, ethnic groups and laws both here in the U.S. and abroad. An aligning purpose is to also provide a medium for networking, mentorship, and the sharing of current events that are affecting their respective homelands. The organization has reached new highs in their membership count and their members are based all over the globe so the need for a centralized digital home is of high importance.
During our 4-week period with our clients, I took on a Project manager and UX Designer role. The responsibilities consisted of making notable design decisions backed by the data collected by our UX Researchers. Also, making sure we were collectively working on the same objectives, surpassing our checkpoints and moving at a timely pace.
We were given the task of providing a growing professional organization with no major online presence a central site for them to conduct their business. The site is to streamline all that they need to translate to their members such as events, news reports, job suggestion listings, and networking opportunities. In addition, it is to provide information for prospective candidates to get information on how to be accepted into the organization. As something grows, the efficiency needs to grow with it so we were glad to assist them in leveling up their current status.
We are building for the primary users which are the current members of the organization. The members consist of individuals in different age ranges and also different regions in the world. Our goal is to make a transitional design for everyone, no matter their age or region, to have ease of use of the site. The secondary would be those just visiting the site to get more information about events or member intake.
Our clients were looking for a “two sided” site. A public and member-facing site versions.
This side would be the landing page and all the information you would need looking at or trying to get into the organization on surface level. Things such as upcoming events, testimonial stories, and a link to the application.
This side would be a gated "members only" site. (Requiring a verified account and login)
A “mini LinkedIn” - An interviewee
A “mini LinkedIn” is what some of our interviewees called it. This is the side of the site where a member would come and house their information such as name, profession, education, etc. from there, you can interact with other members, via in-site messaging portal. The main purpose of the side is to build connections between members that are located all over the world and for the executive board to pass on information in terms of events and current news.
Unique features such as a job board was also desired to assist fellow members in either their job search or promotion into positions where other members may be currently employed.
“Nigerian professionals need a way to organize and network to be able to create a global, socially conscious, collaborative community of emerging Nigerian Diaspora leaders and advocates”
We conducted both surveys and remote zoom call interviews. My team and I were given a roster of the current members that had already said that they were willing and able to participate with our discover process.
- Those that had time, we went ahead and connected via Zoom Call.
- For the others, we simply sent out a survey for them to fill out via email.
They both played a major parts in building out our direction in terms of what features are most important.
The goals and objectives for our survey and user interviews were to gain a more clear understanding of the needs of the members. By broadening our results, we could better identify our target.
- 9 SME Interviews (NaijaDC members)
- 100% of interviewees were between early mid 30’s to 40’s
- 100 % of interviewees are professional with an advance professional degree
- 1 out of 9 interviewees are current members of NaijaDC
- User interviews were held via online conferencing tools like Zoom, Google Hangouts and/or Slack.
- Surveys will be generated using Google Forms
- They were big on communication and engagement through the site. Features such as a messaging portal would be ideal.
- Also, features and tools on the site to keep them informed (live news feed) on what’s going on in the organization and in the world.
- Using the LinkedIn and Facebook model for structural direction
Sam
- 33 years old
- Lawyer
- Single
- Washington, DC.
- Looking for connections with like-minded Nigerians like him
- Interested in philanthropy work for Nigeria and has joined NaijaDC to be in a community with similar pursuits.
“One of our visions is to be a bridge between the diaspora and country."
"As a member of NaijaDC, I would like to have an easy way to communicate with fellow members to discuss current happenings as well as share events going on and job opportunities"
(Communication)
"As a young Nigerian professional, I want to be able to be part of a community that offers mentorship and job opportunities."
(Mentorship/Job Opportunities)
"A young Nigerian professional is looking for a way to connect with like minded individuals who have a passion for advocating for Nigerian policy within the States."
(Networking)
"As a non-member of NaijaDC, I would like to have an easy way to view current members and their profiles."
(Membership)
Prestige - Membership should be exclusive to a certain caliber of people- professionals who are motivated to advocate for Nigerian policies.
Easy to Understand - Website functionality should be easy to navigate.
Minimal - Clean and professionally designed
Community - As a nonprofit organization centered on uplifting members of the Nigerian Diaspora, community is a vital
part of the organization
For the site, it was important to create a two-sided site. (Public and Members-only) We wanted the member-facing side all the features they would ever need to make sure that they felt as though they were receiving a premiere
Our group split up and created divergent concepts to approach the members problem. I took the lead on the Home landing page and Job Board page
The other pages included:
About - About introduction, Mission Statement
Press - NaijaDC’s press into 4 columns
Membership - Membership description and overview
Contact - Users can fill out a message
Member - Members profile, Featured events, recent activities, groups, chat threads and connections
Moving into Mid-fidelity mock-ups, I listened to the desires of the members and discovered new and improved ways to solve the problems they were facing.
- Easier, more streamlined forms of communication in the forms of direct messaging and chat rooms
- Staying more informed about organization news and global current events through a central news feed
- And a few more
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There is always room for improvement. We want to aim for 100% completion rate, decrease the error rate, decrease the average time to complete tasks for more simple tasks, and to increase the percentage of the ease of use rate to a 100% selection of 5.
- One participant found the member portal to be too similar to a facebook page and wondered what additional feature you can get from this page that you would not get from a facebook page.
- Recommended changing the navigation to the top as that is what is most common for websites and users to give a standard and similar web experience.
- Moving the search bar so that it is not prominent on the member portal page and recommended moving it to the side and making it smaller.
- User recommends to add Google Pay to the list of payment options
- User found that the title “Thought Leaders” should be changed to “Founders”, because the former title would be highlighted with what they are thinking not founders or leaders of the organization.
- 2 out of 4 participants mentioned that a top navigation is a much more standardized design pattern for non-members and would allow users to have a similar web experience.
- 3 out of 4 participants had issues locating the contact page.
This was our first taste of the real design world. Taking what you believe and what other people believe in putting it together to make one beautiful and effective product. In terms of the actual product, my team and I had to stretch far and wide to make sure that we got enough information to make the right decisions moving forward. We had to get in contact with people all over the United States and even abroad to make sure our information was correct. I feel as though we really learned the importance of not marrying your desires. One had to be versatile and ready to redesign something at a moment's notice.
The whole project was definitely an eye-opener. Sometimes you have to consolidate preference with efficiency, so some things have to fall for others to rise. At the end of the day, our mission is to complete a goal and to make sure it does the job it was intended to fulfill. I would’ve loved to work a little more with them, and even get more people to test and the final product but in life, comes time restraints. When the time is up, you have to turn in what you have and wish for the best. I’ll take this as a challenge to increase my efficiency in my design process. Even with constricted time, my ability to deliver will not be constructed in the slightest.
