User Research
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Landcarer
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2024
Landcarer’s platform faced low user engagement, making it difficult for Australians to discover and participate in local conservation events. Through user research and stakeholder interviews, I identified key pain points, including complex navigation and the disconnect between event organisers and volunteers.
Landcare Australia
2024
User Research
A comprehensive UX overhaul of Landcarer’s homepage to increase participation in local conservation events, streamline navigation, and enhance user engagement.
This project consisted of redesigning the homepage for Landcarer, a community platform run by Landcare Australia - a leading national not-for-profit organisation that supports the landcare community.
The focus of this project was on enhancing community engagement, providing an intuitive repository for environmental information and streamline navigation.
Since its launch in August 2022, Landcarer's platform has struggled with low user engagement, which has directly impacted participation in local conservation events.
This lack of involvement has made it difficult to fulfill its mission of connecting Australians with local environmental initiatives.
Redesign Landcarer’s homepage and event discovery process to create a more intuitive and engaging user experience. The goal was to make it easier for Australians to discover, sign up for, and participate in local conservation events, addressing key pain points in user engagement and event visibility.
Simplifying navigation will help users find local events more easily, leading to increased participation and engagement.
Providing personalized, location-based content will make the platform more relevant to users and encourage repeat visits.
Enhancing event recaps with visual content will help users better understand event expectations, reducing hesitation and increasing sign-ups.
In discussions with key stakeholders from Landcarer, the need for a streamlined, intuitive platform to boost event participation was highlighted.
Landcarer's leadership emphasized the challenge of recruiting and retaining volunteers and stressed the importance of making the platform appealing to a younger, tech-savvy audience while also supporting existing landcare communities.
Simplify navigation to make event discovery more intuitive?
Personalize the platform’s content based on users' locations to improve engagement?
Provide clearer event expectations through recaps and visual content to encourage more participation?
Incorporate more targeted calls-to-action to increase volunteer sign-ups?
27 users were interviewed to gain insights into their behaviors and frustrations. Many users struggled to find time for events, yet expressed a clear desire to participate in landcare initiatives. The interviews revealed that while users were eager to engage, they found the platform difficult to navigate and event details unclear. The need for better volunteer recruitment strategies also emerged as a critical issue.
Users want to find relevant events quickly, but current navigation made this difficult.
The platform needs to do more to encourage volunteer sign-ups, as many events are understaffed.
Users wanted more location-based recommendations to make the platform feel more relevant to their needs.
I began with sketches to explore ideas for simplifying the homepage and improving event discovery.
Early sketches focused on making events more prominent and reducing the number of clicks required to access key features.
These were translated into wireframes, where I incorporated location-based filters, simplified navigation, and a more visually engaging event listing format.
User testing revealed several key insights:
The redesigned navigation system focused on improving ease of use and minimizing the number of clicks required to find relevant events. A clearer menu structure was introduced, allowing users to quickly navigate to events based on location or interest. The goal was to ensure users could easily discover and sign up for events without feeling overwhelmed by unnecessary steps.
Users previously struggled with the platform’s complexity, making it harder to find and participate in events.
The navigation bar was redesigned with intuitive labels and dropdown menus that categorize events by type and region, enabling users to access information in fewer clicks.
One of the key challenges users faced was finding events relevant to their location. To address this, I implemented a feature that automatically filters events based on the user’s IP address. Users can also manually adjust their location, providing personalized and relevant event listings at a glance.
This feature ensures users see only the most relevant events, which improves the likelihood of their participation.
Upon landing on the homepage, users are automatically presented with a list of events tailored to their current location. An "Edit Location" button was also added to allow for manual changes.
Users often expressed uncertainty about what to expect from events, which deterred them from signing up. To reduce this hesitation, I introduced event recaps, featuring photos, videos, and testimonials from past events. These recaps give users a better understanding of the experience, creating a sense of trust and transparency.
Event recaps help set expectations and provide reassurance, increasing user confidence in participating.
Each event listing now includes a "Past Event Recap" section, showcasing media from previous events to give users a visual and emotional understanding of what the event entails.
CTAs were strategically placed throughout the platform to encourage user interaction, whether signing up for events, sharing events with others, or engaging further with the platform. This approach helped drive actions that could lead to higher volunteer numbers and event participation.
Incorporated prominent, action-oriented buttons like "Sign Up Now," "Share Event," and "Join the Community" across event listings and within the user journey.
Engaging CTAs prompt users to take immediate action, which helps boost event sign-ups and platform engagement.
This case study reflects a strategic, research-driven approach to redesigning Landcarer’s platform, with a focus on simplifying navigation, enhancing event discovery, and improving the overall user experience. The final design not only addressed core issues like low volunteer numbers but also created a more engaging, personalized platform that connects Australians with meaningful conservation opportunities.
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