MDAT Assessment Tool @ University of Liverpool
The Malawi Development Assessment Tool (MDAT) is a simple-to-use, adaptable tool used to assess brain development in young children living in low-income settings. The website for this tool lacked user friendly features such as a structured, coherent information architecture and page layout.
Role
UX Design
UX research
UX writing/copy
Results
39% more engagement after testing with MDAT users on two occasions
THE DILEMMA
How can we make the MDAT tool accessible to curious visitors and prospective trainers?
Websites for psychological research tools or labs are oftentimes visited by people from academic backgrounds who are interested in reading about or participating in a study. The MDAT website specifically focuses on a tool developed by Dr Melissa Gladstone to aid researchers in understanding child brain development in low-income countries.
However, the website was not optimal for the user experience - visitors of the site found it had excessive text, it was very difficult to navigate and had a poorly structured registration process.
understanding the academic community
COMPETITOR ANALYSIS
After analysing several psychological research lab websites such as the SCAN lab or LIRSM lab at Columbia University. These labs are similar to the MDAT website as they focus on psychological research - the only difference is that the MDAT focuses on describing a single psychological tool as opposed to various research projects. However, it was evident that many of these websites lacked resources for academic communities to get involved with research or discuss topics.
These websites have a confusing information architecture and are difficult to navigate with lots of information piled together on one page.
USER RESEARCH
I conducted several interviews among psychology students in my past cohorts in my BSc in Psychology and MSc in Cognitive Neuroscience which allowed me to identify common trends and goals among a relevant audience while also gathering more detailed information about their dislikes of the process. The findings showed:
Inability to request information in a way that allows students to discuss among themselves
60% of users were also frustrated with the inability to access information that was not listed on the webpage. Being able to ask their own questions and interact with other users was an important factor for 70% of users.
Desire for opportunities to get involved with research (but NOT as a participant)
Around 90% of surveyed users expressed the need for opportunities of involvement in the world of academia. Getting involved as a researcher - as opposed to participant - is typically not advertised on lab websites, making opportunities challenging to find and obtain.
USER PERSONA
I developed a user persona to better understand the issues the website was facing, the type of person who would be viewing the website, and what kind of goals they would have when visiting it. Below are the outcomes for this brainstorm:
re-imagining the site
04 USER FLOWS
Keeping in mind that users want to be able to easily navigate the website, find training opportunities, and socialise with others in the community, I was able to design a layout that would allow users to have this easy user experience.
final outcome
Using Adobe Analytics software, data analysts on the team were able to find an average of 35% engagement across all main headings within the navigation after the site IA had been restructured.
reflection
Working on implementing a more user-centred layout allowed me to begin applying the skills I had taught myself about UX design and human-centred thinking. Having a team to constantly go to for feedback was also extremely helpful in understanding what features worked and what needed iterating throughout the process.
Given my recurring role on the MDAT team as a website and content editor, I have further opportunities to develop the UX design of the site through user testing and further iterations.