Digital Designers
Plan, design and develop user interfaces and user experiences, websites and other digital content for a range of digital platforms.
Redesigning a council's rubbish pickup page
You are a UX designer at a small studio, hired to redesign the page where residents check their bin collection day and report missed bins. It is Wednesday. You have a prototype to show the client on Friday. Before then you have a round of user testing, a client with strong opinions and a developer with a different concern.
Choose what you would do. Then see what happens. There are often good reasons for each choice.
We want a big banner at the top of the page promoting the new recycling campaign, and the missed bin form can go in the menu. The campaign matters to our director and the page gets lots of visits.
Agree to the banner at the top and move the form into the menu
The director is happy, but people looking to report a missed bin cannot find the form and ring the council instead. The campaign page gets visits, and the real job of the page gets worse.
Show Wendy what people come to the page to do, and propose a smaller campaign banner below the main tasks
Wendy has not seen the visit data in this way. She agrees to the lower banner as long as it is clearly visible, and sees that you are helping the campaign, not blocking it.
Say you will design what is best for users and ignore the banner request
Your design is cleaner, but Wendy feels brushed off and the director complains. Even when you are right, a client needs to feel their goals are part of the solution.
I am not very good with computers. I just want to know which day they pick up my bins. I typed my street, and it shows me a map I do not understand. Is it me, or is this confusing?
Tell him it is not his fault and take careful notes on exactly where he got stuck on the page
He relaxes and you learn where the map confuses him. But you still need to tell the team what to change, and the notes are only the start of that.
Explain what the map is for and how to read it so he can finish the task and get his answer
He gets to his answer, but you have taught him instead of testing the design. The next hundred residents will not have you sitting beside them.
Ask what he expected to see, note where he got stuck, and keep going without helping
He says he expected a list of days, not a picture. That is a clear finding, and it is easy to act on. Watching quietly gives you what questions alone would not.
That animated map you designed is going to take me about two weeks to build, and it will be slow on older phones. A simple list would take an afternoon. Do you really need the map?
Insist on the map because it is the best looking option and the one the council will notice
The map is built late, runs poorly on older phones and many residents never see it. A good idea became a barrier to the people who most needed the page.
Look at the test results with Ravi and build the list first, with the map as a later extra
The list ships on time, residents get their answer faster, and the map idea goes onto a later list. You and Ravi work well together on the next job.
Drop the map and the list and use plain text because it is the cheapest and quickest to build
It is quick to build, but plain text without structure is hard to scan. You saved time, though a modest bit of design would have made it much easier to use.
How it went
On Friday the client sees a simpler page than you first imagined, with the campaign in a smaller place and a list where the map was. Digital design is the practice of listening to users and clients and still making a decision. Do you enjoy working out why something does not work for people?
This is a simplified, fictional situation to help you explore. It is not professional instruction or a test of your ability.
Case study: The booking form nobody could finish
A fictional case set in a small studio designing websites and apps for local businesses and community groups.
The situation
Lena designed the website for a physiotherapy clinic in the town of Barrow Creek. The clinic owner, Dr Aziz, loved the new look, but the number of online bookings had barely moved. Phone calls were still piling up at the front desk. Dr Aziz thought the problem was the colour of the booking button and asked Lena to try a brighter orange. Lena was not sure it was the colour, but she did not have any evidence yet.
What they did
Lena asked if she could watch five real patients try to book, including an older man and a mother holding a toddler. She sat beside each one and said nothing. Three of them gave up at the same screen, where the form asked for a referral code that most patients did not have on them. She sketched a version that made that field optional and moved the date picker up. She showed Dr Aziz a short video of the patients struggling, and then the new version working.
How it turned out
Dr Aziz agreed to the change and kept the original button colour. Online bookings began to rise within a few weeks and the front desk phone was quieter. Lena says she nearly argued about orange instead of looking at what people did.
What would you do?
- How would you politely disagree with a client who is sure they know the problem?
- What might you learn from watching people use something that you could never learn by asking them?
- Why might a design that looks great still not work?