Be.Macmillan

Free cancer information and merchandise

Duration: November 2022- present
Role: Product designer, UX design, UI design
Tools: Miro, Figma

Be.Macmillan is a platform providing free cancer information and merchandise for the public, supporters, professionals, and internal staff.

The Be.Macmillan platform is being decommissioned and all its content needs to be migrated to alternative platforms. The team’s main objective is to deliver a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) as quickly as possible.

The UX challenge is to ensure all user needs are met and to identify opportunities to optimise the user experience with minimal technical work, all within the restraints of the third-party platform we will be building the solution on.

Process Mapping Workshops

To kick-start the project, it was important there was a shared, clear understanding amongst the team of the current system due to its complex nature and involvement with multiple departments.

I facilitated process mapping workshops that engaged stakeholders in examining existing processes for information, merchandise, and customised material. The artefact provided comprehensive insights into the ordering and fulfillment process across departments, the identification of user pain points and process gaps, and clarity on the implementation of the order approval process.

An example of a pain point found in this process included the lack of communication for waiting periods due to a process gap, where if the approver doesn’t respond to the approval request, the order gets lost in the system and the user is not notified.

Working alongside the technical and business objectives, we collaboratively created a future process map that illustrates a suitable system that addresses post-decommissioning challenges. This assisted the decision-making in choosing a fitting platform to migrate to, provided direction for designs that translated to logic easily, and highlighted user experience optimisation opportunities that were technically low-effort.

Personas

To support discussions on user requirements and foster empathy, I conducted personas workshops with stakeholders and users. The personas deliver valuable guidance for design decisions, aligning with the distinct needs of the various user types of the Be.Macmillan system; Health & Social Care Professionals, Macmillan professionals, Internal staff, the General public and Supporters. Usage data and feedback from the support care department were utilised to enrich the quality of these artefacts.

The personas served as a useful reference point and reduced the amount of ambiguity when it came to design decisions. For example, empathising with a supporter’s (a fundraiser) perspective, although all the items are free, it is useful to know how much is spent on the items I am ordering, so that fundraising would not be a wasted effort. i.e. I raise £100 to help Mamcillan, but I spent £150 of Macmillan’s money to support the event. The resulting design decision means users are able to view the cost to Macmillan, but it is clear all items are free to order.

User Journey Mapping

Through collaborative workshops, user journeys are crafted based on stakeholder’s direct experience with our users and available analytical data. The user journeys provided high-level overviews of each persona's experience, specifically highlighting the touchpoints they have with the Be.Macmillan platform. The process elicits insights into users' thoughts and emotions during their interactions with the site, providing a nuanced understanding of their experience.

The user journeys served as a guiding framework for design decisions, ensuring alignment with user needs and goals and was also used as a strategic tool for pinpointing opportunities to enhance the overall user experience, offering a tangible roadmap for improvements that directly address users' expectations and sentiments.

Site Structure

Stakeholders unanimously agreed that the current platform posed many challenges for users in terms of navigation. To tackle issue, site mapping was conducted to gain a comprehensive understanding of the existing site's structure and content, in order to establish an improved site structure that enhances user navigation.

Some of the identified issues encompass inconsistent category types and numerous duplications of content across the site. Additionally, concerns are raised about the excessive number of clicks required to reach specific information.

Next steps: New site structures are being explored, where navigation will be tested via tree tests using the UserTesting platform. As part of the process, all user types will be considered and catered for by referencing the Personas and User journeys.

Prototyping

Wireframes were drafted to enable a visualised discussion with stakeholders, including the content team, at an early stage. This provided a co-design opportunity, where the team explored ideas of navigation and refined the key messages we wanted to reach our users.

The development roadmap is guided by technical needs, and mockups of the site were created to support the work- particularly around exploring and delivering custom features.

Throughout the design process, it was important to consider the constraints of the chosen platform for migration, Shopify, as well as utilising Macmillan’s Design system and style guide. There was close collaboration with developers for guidance on available functions and the limits on custom functionality.

Next steps: An interactive prototype of new designs is being tested with users via UserTesting, all whilst the development team works through the feature backlog. This ensures all designs at handover are validated prior to implementation.

Wireframe workshop exploring navigation ideas

Reflection

The co-design approach of this project enabled effective design decisions to be made efficiently and utilised the varied expertise of contributors in the cross-functional team.

However, due to a lack of resources, UX involvement was very limited throughout the project and was technically led for the most part. The project would benefit from input from users at an earlier stage and with more support from data analysis to assess current user behaviours- which was not set up.

As this is an ongoing project, there will be capacity to introduce a more user-centred approach, such as through testing and feedback loops.