Vinnies

The challenge

Vinnies is synonymous with supporting those in need, respecting every person's human dignity, sharing hope, and encouraging them to take control of their own destiny. To ensure Vinnies can continue to deliver on its vision of being recognised as a caring Catholic charity offering ‘a hand up’ to people in need, the organisation undertook a website discovery project, with the goal of identifying where it should focus its efforts to deliver the biggest impact. The discovery kicked off with some illuminating research, identifying that the website was no longer fit-for-purpose due to difficulties users face in finding information and completing tasks. This was attributed to the large amount of information, confusing structure, inconsistent style and language, poor usability, and an ineffective search function. 

To take this insight to the next level, Vinnies engaged Luminary to uncover the actionable priority areas where it could be more accessible and intuitive in its site design and user experience.

What we did

To answer the brief, Luminary conducted a heuristic review, an accessibility review, and user testing, each with the goal of producing actionable recommendations that would ensure Vinnies could step change its website experience for users, ultimately enabling it to help more people.

The heuristic review involved a Luminary UX researcher conducting detailed analysis of key pages of the Vinnies website against established UX principles. Findings from this phase indicated issues with the primary navigation, inconsistent design patterns, and areas where content could be better presented to improve user engagement. For instance, the mix of primary and secondary link styles caused confusion, and the ‘Services’ section lacked visual engagement. Actionable recommendations were provided to address these areas.

Accessibility in website design means that a product or service can be used by everyone, regardless of how  they encounter it. The accessibility audit focused on ensuring the Vinnies website adhered to WCAG guidelines. This involved assessing aspects such as colour contrast, the proper use of HTML heading structures, and the clarity of form input labels. While the colour contrast generally met AA compliance, opportunities were identified to refine text link appearances, improve error and success identifications for forms, and ensure consistent and predictable page layouts. The audit also highlighted the importance of clear external link indicators and keyboard traversal. 

Providing Vinnies with clear and actionable recommendations to optimise its accessibility will support the organisation in reaching and helping as many individuals in need as possible.

After the heuristic and accessibility reviews established the opportunities to optimise the site from a best practice standpoint, usability testing was conducted to ground the recommendations in customer insight and to pinpoint the priority areas to address. The testing was conducted on both desktop and mobile, with demographics spanning various ages, and locations. Key journeys such as navigating from the home page, accessing vital services, becoming a member or volunteer, giving money and goods, and finding a local Vinnies shop were thoroughly examined. 

Multiple areas were identified for optimisation, with a key opportunity being highlighted to simplify and clarify the navigation between Home and state-specific pages after using the postcode finder. The global search filters and results also posed challenges, as users struggled to find relevant services due to duplicated titles and generic filter options. 

The result

Leveraging insights from the heuristic review, accessibility audit, and user testing, Luminary provided a series of recommendations to enhance the Vinnies website, including:

• updating navigation tools for seamless pathways across the site
• addressing the lack of on-page links between key service content
• clarifying the perception of ‘Services’ to include volunteering and shops
• improving store pages with key information on donations and services
• standardising pathways to contact information and application forms
• refining the global search tool and filters for better relevance.

These recommendations were organised into a prioritised roadmap that highlighted both quick wins, and longer term ideas to support Vinnies in achieving its organisational goals. With the insights gathered and roadmap complete, Vinnies was equipped with the insights and a clear roadmap for website improvements and activities that would make its website more accessible, intuitive and high performing.