This was a capstone project in a team of two. I have worked on every part of the user-centered design process on this project. It is a redesign and technology enhancement of a DuPage and Kendal County Housing Authority Website.
Original/Existing website: https://www.dupagehousing.org
Summary
DuPage and Kendall housing authority is a government organization that provides low and medium income housing to applicants. In this study we present our findings by using user centered design methods to redesign and introduce an embedded chatbot technology for real time consultation on the DuPage and Kendall housing authority website.
The existing website offers inconsistent and redundant content which makes the information architecture confusing and frustrating for new users, this findings were supported based on our user research. We propose to improve the website’s application process, navigation by updating its information architecture, and integrating chatbot technology to match the current usability standards.
Our study consisted of 21 participants with 20 to 55 year age range who were tested on two different screen sizes, phone and laptop versions, of the website. We tested the time taken by our participants to complete the given tasks on the current website compared to our redesigned prototype of the website.
Our final usability test results demonstrated that the time taken to complete most of the tasks in the new prototype is less compared to the time taken to complete those tasks during the user research on the current website. Our major findings were that the participants were less frustrated in completing the application process and navigating on the redesigned prototype of the website. They also considered taking help of a live representative through a chatbot over calling an office representative.
Goal
Our goal is to make this website more usable and have understandable content links to fit necessary information in limited space, while keeping breathable space on the webpage for better aesthetics and maintaining its original brand identity. The major goals we focused on were:
(1) Improved application process;
(2) Easy navigation by updating its information architecture and following the standards based on competitive websites;
(3) Integrating chatbot technology to avoid time spent on calls with the office representative and getting instant help on finding resources on this confusingly large website.
This will positively fulfill the housing district's mission of furthering fair housing for their vulnerable populations and promoting self-sufficiency. By following the user-centered design process, we hope to increase the user experience by redesigning this website.
Competitive Research
● Information architecture: The Housing Authority of Cook County, Lake County Housing Authority, and The Aurora housing authority have systematically organized their content on the website main page, and the important information links are easily accessible to the users, whereas LowIncomeHousing.US provides the users with general information about properties at different locations, that the user needs to inquire by themselves. DuPage & Kendal Housing Authority website is an older site that has no real descriptive links. The information on this website could be overwhelming for new users with less important information available on the main page.
● Application Process: Lake County Housing Authority has an “Apply Online” button on the main page that includes step-by-step information to create an application on their website. The Housing Authority of Cook County has provided quick links on their main page and resident portal that includes a step-by-step instruction manual to create an online application on their website. Their online application process is handled by a third party website called RENTCafé whereas DuPage & Kendall Housing Authority also use RENTCafé to handle their online application process and have labeled their Application portal as Applicant Café, which can be confusing to users.
● Clarification over email or phone: All the websites handle clarification to user problems via email or phone with a 12-48 hours response time.
Literature Review
We preformed literature review to understand how to increase the usability and credibility of the DuPage and Kendall Housing Authority Website by researching articles that will help us to improve the Information architecture and technology enhancements (i.e., chatbot) needed to make it more user friendly.
From our literature review, to improve the website (Youngblood, N. E., 2012), usability testing should include accessibility tests with disable users and periodic evaluation to keep website’s content current and accurate. Usability of a website is directly proportional to credibility of a e-government website (Huang, Z., 2014). Usability problems that e-government websites need to focus on include: hard-to-understand content, inconsistent formats, poor navigation capabilities whereas broken links, overloaded information presentation, and inconsistent colors are some credibility problems that need focus. The use of chatbot (Brandtzaeg, P. B., 2017) is highlighted as an alternative to traditional customer service. Major users of chatbot are US tech companies like social networking sites. The study provides insights on the motivational factors associated with the use of conversational interfaces which include productivity, ease, speed and convenience, social and relational purpose, efficient assistance or information, and for novelty reasons.
Live User Research (Contextual Inquiry)
We conducted live user research to observe how the user navigates through the current website, we will perform a contextual inquiry and note the time taken to complete all tasks given in order to enhance the website.
We recruited 6 participants through peer connections (four females and two males, between the ages of 23 and 55), who were technologically proficient in using smartphones or laptops to search online. Two participants used their phone and the other four participants used their laptops.
Our team conducted interviews individually via Zoom by following the interview script. Before our interviews, we emailed the participants with the consent form.
Tasks:
1. You are a new applicant to this website, looking for low and moderate income housing in DuPage and Kendall county.
○ Navigate through the website to apply for housing on this website. 2. You are really in need of Section 8 housing for your large family.
○ Where would you find Section 8 housing information on the Website? 3. You want to check the limits for a medium family income before applying for
Kendall housing.
○ Where would you find information about the Income limits for a medium
○ Where would you find information about the Income limits for a medium
family income for Kendall housing?
4. You want to check the utility allowance that DuPage housing offers.
4. You want to check the utility allowance that DuPage housing offers.
○ Where would you find information about the Utility allowance that DuPage housing provides?
5. There is a change in household income and you need to report this to the DuPage Housing Authority.
○ Where would you find information on how to report a change to your household income?
Content Inventory
We created a list of the content links, with names and comments, that is on the DuPage and Kendall Housing Authority website's main page and first level menu bar. Our initial draft had a lot of redundant items on the home page content links. We decreased the redundancy by deleting all the repeated links, relabeled them and combined them under a common top-level grouping on the main page navigation. This helped us make some extra breathable space on the main page and add more valuable and understandable content in limited space for better navigation. We also created new subgroups of similar items using more common and intuitive names to help users more directly find items that they are looking for on the DuPage and Kendall housing authority website. After completing the item categorization, we conducted three rounds of card sorts to audit our content inventory. There were some conflicting results with our initial assumptions that the test results did not deliver in the first round of the card sort.
- Details of this projects would be provided when asked.
Hi-fi Desktop Prototype: Please copy and paste the below link in a new tab
https://www.figma.com/proto/QHEvKsLDKxPBqcXRBx0VEq/Dupage-Prototype?node-id=537%3A1428&starting-point-node-id=537%3A1428
Hi-fi Phone Prototype: Please copy and paste the below link in a new tab
https://www.figma.com/proto/QHEvKsLDKxPBqcXRBx0VEq/Dupage-Prototype?node-id=537%3A989&starting-point-node-id=537%3A989&scaling=scale-down
