Dorothy's Place
Building community for LGBTQ+ seniors
Timeline
My Role
Six months
UX Designer
I was responsible for user research, ideation, low/high fidelity wireframes and prototyping. I worked on the branding and designing the homepage of the website.
Team
Kara Locsin
Elif Aksit
Suraya Mahamod
Felicia Guy-Lynch
PROBLEM
LGBTQ+ seniors are looking for a community of support to prevent social isolation, especially since the pandemic. Dorothy’s Place is currently using several sources to reach their audience, such as Facebook and Mailchimp. Our client needed help with increasing donations, acquiring new members and keeping existing members up-to-date.
Defining the problem
How might we build an opportunity for connection?
SOLUTION
A meaningful content strategy and website redesign that clearly communicates the theme of building connection to receive the interest of both members and donors. Our website will create one source for donors and participants to receive important information ranging from donating, participating and learning about events.
DISCOVERY
We interviewed 15 members and donors to define and understand who currently uses the website and how they use it. Based on the results from our user research, we saw that existing members and donors saw Dorothy’s Place as a safe space to connect and a solution to the problem of social isolation faced by the senior LGBTQ+ community.
Some key findings from the interviews include:
• Having a safe space to connect
• It is currently a solution to the problem of isolation
Newcomers need to:
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Learn about participant experience
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Learn how the program can put them in touch with others
Donors need to:
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Be directed to donate
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See how their support helps the community
Current State Analysis
The content audit and current state analysis consisted of looking over existing content on the organization’s pages (webpage and Facebook) to find out:
• What information is missing
• What style Dorothy’s Place uses to deliver its messages
• If the language on the page is accessible to the audience
• What are the good, bad, and impartial aspects of the website
• The requirements for the new design and ensure they are accurately captured
DEFINE
From the research and analysis, we then created user personas to better understand the user's needs, experiences and goals.
Personas
Site Map
Creating a site map helped us structure the content of the website. It was important for us to highlight the benefits of Dorothy's Place and what it means to members, so this is reflected on the homepage. We organised the information in a way that ensures minimal steps and an easy experience for both members and donors to access information.
Due to time and resource constraints, we proposed dividing the website into two phases - Phase 1: MVP and Phase 2: Future expansion of the website.
DESIGN
Branding
I created a style guide using vibrant colours, pulling inspiration from their original logo and also updated their font using an appropriate size and typeface to ensure accessibility.
RESULT
This is the result of the final website, that was designed on Figma and later built on Wix.com.
REFLECTION
It was a great experience working on Dorothy's Place and I am proud of the work we accomplished as a team. I learned how to communicate directly with a client, the importance of storytelling, identifying the client’s needs and how to contribute my skills to a team. Our client, Carmen, was so pleased with the results, that she hired us to design the final website after the project ended.
