The Humane Society
Transactional flows don’t have to be dry
CONTRIBUTIONS
Voice and Tone, User Flow Mapping, Content Audit, UI Copy, Error Messages
ROLE
UX Writer - student project for School of Visual Concepts
TIMELINE
Sept 2022 - Nov 2022 (6 weeks)
Home
Ways to give
Donation type
Donation amount
Payment details
Error message
Donation confirmation
PROBLEM
The Humane Society is a nonprofit organization that promotes positive relationships between animals and people. They rely on the community for donations.
Making a one-time donation is not easy. It was hard to find the “Donate” button. Once you do, the next screens still aren’t straightforward. The content was not helpful, redundant, and lengthy. A good user experience matters because we want users to want to donate again.
SOLUTION
Create a voice chart that aligns with key principles
Apply the voice to the content
Use microcopy to address users’ questions about the donation process
WHAT I DID
I identified areas of inefficiencies and how content was used. I forced errors to see example error messages.
I evaluated the current content on their website. Since I was not working directly with the Humane Society, reading their current content, mission, and values helped me understand who they were.
I received live critiques from classmates on my drafts. I presented my suggested changes; classmates presented alternate points of view for me to consider.
I mapped the user flow for making a donation.
I jotted down words and phrases from their website. The 4 primary tone-of-voice dimensions helped me pinpoint a general voice.
WHAT I FOUND
The content could benefit from UX writing principles: clear, concise, purposeful, and conversational. Error messages used words that blamed the user.
I concluded from my content audit that the Humane Society’s 3 key concepts were: kindness to all animals, an altruistic mission, and encouraging others to act. I created a voice chart and strategy statement to reflect this.
I realized my first draft may not be appropriate for all audiences, namely the older generation. My tone with “You’re an awesome human being.” may come off as irreverent.
STRATEGY STATEMENT
The Humane Society’s mission is to help every animal (dog, cat, critter) in Washington find a permanent loving home.
Our values are altruism, generosity, kindness, and encouragement.
Our target audience is animal lovers who want to make a difference but are worried about what that entails.
CHALLENGES
Ideally, I would have talked directly with the Humane Society to help me determine their voice. Since this was a class project, I decided to use what I had available: their website!
It was a bit challenging for me to choose the exact words to best describe the content. Some words I first thought of were close but not quite right (e.g. dependent instead of encouraging). The thesaurus was my friend to help me land on the right words.
Time was a constraint as this was a 5-week class. I would have conducted user testing with my content changes, which would have provided me with invaluable feedback on next iterations.
RESULTS
I presented my final work to the class and received feedback.
Positive feedback included 1) intentional voice and tone, 2) alignment with the organization’s brand, 3) clean and clear presentation of work, and 4) accessibility considerations.
Constructive feedback included 1) making my changes more apparent, 2) determination of CTAs for the home page, and 3) error message tone may be too casual.