Redesigning Landcare Australia home page

Portals did not communicate with each other, leading to lengthy post creating process.

Insufficient user-generated content

Content heavy homepage

Challenges in approaching senior users

Landcare Australia aimed to have more 60 years old+ users to be their target audience; however, they had trouble reaching out to this aged group because they were not tech-savvy, in general.

If the landing page has a more precise division for different target audiences, users get the info that interests them more quickly, resulting in a higher retention rate.

Why? Now the landing page is not well-organised.

If the landing page categorises the posts based on geographical locations, users are more likely to access the posts, which increases the views.

Why? People join activities based on their locations.

If the content creator does not need to duplicate the post manually, they are more happy to use the platform to share the information.

Why? The lengthy process of creating a post discourages creators.

If the retirees are exposed to Landcarer, 60+ users will increase and even become one of the majority.

Why? I assume they are not active on the Internet. They have not heard of Landcarer.

We studied 27 websites (14 NGOs and 13 non-NGOs) focusing on their website layout, event search, discussion. Some key findings definitely contributed to the ideation process later on.  

1. Traditional approaches for seeking and organising activities applied to among senior users. Example. SMS, flyers, stick posters on walls, local newspaper, radio station, TV station.
2. Senior users preferred email / WhatsApp than Google.
3. 2 out of 27 (7%) learnt about events from families, word of mouth and physical newsletter.

1. 5 out of 27 (~20%) found events, community, information on Facebook.
2. 4 out of 27 (15%) learnt about interested topics from user generated content and considered that valuable.
3. 2 out of 27 (7%) found events on local council webpages.

From brainstorming to med-fi homepage, I have elaborated 4 key features that enable Ben, Emily, Clare to join events, learn environmental issues, exchange with like-minded without hassle.

Quick start” did not seem to serve its purpose

Only 1 was able spot the “organise an event” at quick start and commented that the words and background should have a strong contrast. 2 out of 8 found “quick start” value-added and thought it allowed them to view the whole pictureIn fact, 2 of my cohort also commented that having 2 call-to-action buttons on one block was confusing.

“Sign up” could be misleading and intimidating to senior users

One senior participant told me, “is this website for farmers only?… To be honest, I found this a bit off-putting.” For sure, that needed to further tested and validated in the future. However, this was a good opportunity for me and Landcare Australia to rethink where sign up should sit on the page. Also, the tagline did not justify the fact that the platform was open to everyone sharing interests on environmental issues, not just for farmers and agriculture experts.

Restructure the knowledge corner (also known as "Learn more about environmental issues") and discussion

Younger participants enjoyed browsing through the topics via different multi-media formats. When being asked to point out where they could find some videos on the homepage, most of them pointed out knowledge corner, discussion or both. That inspired me to find a way to present both sections in a sense that they are connected yet distinguishable.

Menu bar was the most clickable area

The heat maps indicated that’s the most popular area. In addition to to that, when the users were sharing the screen with me, I observed that their cursors revolving around the menu bar frequently. From the results, the menu bar most likely was an essential element to keep users engaging with the platform.

Hero banner
The tagline is more generic in a sense that broader audience can relate to and as mentioned, one highlights search function whereas another encourages users to sign up

Quick start
Now it’s with different actions with clearer labelling sitting in separate cards instead of two actions in one bigger card

Knowledge corner, also known as "Learn more about environmental issues"
Considering potential users prefer viewing facts and opinions simultaneously, discussion and educational resources are merged together. On top of that, the feature also allows users choose their preferred way to learn the topics.

Mobile version
To bring the home page onto next level, I’ve built a mobile version for future development.

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