Private Organizations
Moving2Canada
A thorough UX research project that ultimately turned into Canada's top resource for immigration support, through a complex WordPress and React build
See project
Moving2Canada.com
Interface Design
Experience Design
Information Architecture
Development
The Moving2Canada website offers free resources to help individuals through the process of immigrating to Canada, from the initial planning stage to settling in. The website provides a complete library containing accurate, updated information on everything immigration-related. Every year, thousands of visitors from across the globe visit the website to better prepare for their move to Canada.
The Moving2Canada website started as a blog many years ago. As time went by, it grew and became a full-blown portal that offers users invaluable resources and tools - but the site's navigation had become too complicated for most people to use! When the Moving2Canada team approached Goat for help, they had a simple wish: to make their website more attractive and easier to use.
Additionally, the team at Moving2Canada were testing the waters on implementing a portal where users would have access to a more personalized experience. However, it wasn't clear how to properly implement this feature, and if users would even want to use the feature in the first place.
Project Type
Website Redesign
Project Mandate
Website Redesign
Industry
Private Organziation
The starting point
Website audit
One of the very first steps we take whenever we have a new website redesign project is to analyze its current state. During this step, we map out user pathways through the content and analyze general aspects of the website, from structure to visuals.
Competitor audit
Following this analysis, we conducted research to compare Moving2Canada against their main competitors. From a UI/UX perspective, we assessed the competitors' features, strengths, weaknesses and opportunities. This investigation brought us many useful insights into the immigration industry that were valuable to the project.
Comparative analysis included:
Landing UX
Navigation
Overall Visual Presence
Tone of Voice
Profile Completion Process
Level of Interaction
Load Speed on Mobile
Load Speed on Desktop
Account Sign up Process
Impartiality
Express Entry Info
PnP Info
Content Lifespan
Heatmaps
Inspecting closer, we analyzed heatmaps and screen recordings that unveiled granular details on how users were interacting with the website. Simple movements and clicks from genuine users under real-world conditions can tell us more than conducting multiple surveys would.
Google Analytics
We finished our exploration phase with a detailed investigation of the website's Analytics data. We examined one year's worth of data, which gave us an accurate representation of who the users are and their most prominent behaviour patterns when navigating the website. This was especially important for us to understand the differences in behaviour when it comes to geographic location.
The Research
Stakeholder interviews
We conducted four individual interviews that brought us an in-depth understanding of the business itself and where things are going for the company moving forward. These insider points of view help us design with the business goals in mind.
Topics Discussed
Product
Business
Assumptions
Hypothesis
User Account
Concerns
Tools & Features
Personalization
Gamification
Content Management
News
User Interviews
One of the most important aspects of any UX research is to give users a voice. In selecting interviewees it was important to gather responses from a variety of immigrants of various nationalities and demographics, both still abroad and already in Canada.
User data from Google Analytics helped pinpoint the target participant characteristics. After conducting a screening survey with willing candidates, we spoke to eight participants in four different countries.
The findings from the interview greatly influenced our design decisions later on in the project.
User Survey
With over 1,000 participants, a user survey was an essential part of this project. It gave us valuable insights into users' motivations, lifestyles, family structures, preferences and desires.
However, as powerful as quantitative data can be, it can only tell us so much. It's at the intersection of numbers and qualitative data that we gain an insightful perspective on users and their behaviours.
More than
1000
Survey responses
The Redesign
Information Architecture
We approached the redesign by introducing a solid information architecture that would allow users to find what they needed based on what stage of the immigration process they were in. The vast content library was then organized into four areas:
Knowledge Center
Tools and Trackers
News Articles
Feature Articles
The URL structure was also revisited, culminating in a reorganization of the pages so that users could smoothly navigate from broader content into more granular and specific subjects.
We also included a new dashboard for registered users, with advanced features such as a progress tracker, checklists, job board, and downloadable resources, among others.
Wireframes
With the high-level structure set, we moved on to the wireframing step. This is where we took a closer look at how content and visual assets would be organized and presented on each page. We built high-fidelity, interactive wireframes, allowing all stakeholders involved in the process to navigate between pages and evaluate the content structure and the navigation flow.
Design
Colours, fonts, styles, illustrations, photos and several other assets are put together during this phase to build the website's look and feel. For the new Moving2Canada website, our designers prepared fully interactive prototypes that allowed all members of the team to evaluate the design in detail and in different screen sizes.
This phase included all key pages and user flows, but not all pages needed to be designed. Our team developed a lean workflow that consists of designing only strictly necessary pages, combined with a custom-made design system that covered every detail necessary to bring all the remaining pages to life.
Design System
Implementing a design system is key to our lean process, facilitating the work between designers and developers to flow smoothly. The system consists of a library of components, design assets and guidelines collected into a central source that developers can reference, to turn wireframes into fully fledged functional pages.
Design systems also speed up and future-proof a project, ensuring that subsequent iterations can be implemented quickly while being visually consistent with the entire website.
Colours
Accessibility Check
Components
The outcomes
The redesigned website elevates Moving2Canada's user experience, offering visitors much-improved navigability, a more engaging experience for registered users with the new personal dashboard and a robust new structure that will enable the website to serve users for years to come.
35%
Increase in account registrations
60%
Increase in newsletter subscriptions
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