Intro
Recycle Devon, an organisation of local authorities set up to promote reducing, reusing and recycling to Devon residents wanted to undertake a review of their existing website www.recycledevon.org.uk
Background
The Recycle Devon website had been around for a few years and grown to cover a wide range of topics over that time – from providing a recipe book in order to help minimise food waste to giving tips on composting as well as general information about recycling centres across Devon. The view was that the website needed a review of its content and its usability to ensure that it was giving website visitors an informative and user-friendly website experience.
Challenge
We needed to speak to groups of people from different age groups and from different local authority areas in Devon.
And during the recruitment process, we went into Lockdown for the COVID19 pandemic.
Solution
We decided to split the 3 focus groups not only by location but by age on the basis that different age groups have different expectations and experiences of browsing websites:
- Exeter – 18 -34 years old
- North Devon – 34-54 years old
- South Hams – 55+ years old
Prior to the focus group, we set the attendees several different tasks to perform on the website – certain pages to browse and information to look for.
They then “attended” the focus group using the Zoom platform and Sarah Ingram moderated the group in the usual way.
New potential designs for the website were also shared with the attendees.
Outcome
As a result of the research, the client was given a clear view on which aspects of the website appealed to the attendees and any improvements that could be made. A clear view was also given on the preferred look and feel of the website – helping the client and the designers to make an informed decision.