ICT4D Project

Role

User Research Lead - participant recruitment, usability testing, data analysis, personas, user journeys, and design aid

Period

September - October 2023

Project Overview

ICT4D is a South African initiative aimed at connecting researchers globally through a shared digital platform. This project focused on evaluating and improving the desktop experience of the ICT4DSA website by identifying usability issues and proposing a concept ideation and design, wireframing, and prototyping in order to improve the overall UX - clarity, navigation, and discoverability changes to support research and collaboration.

Understanding the Problem

Initial exploration revealed that users struggled to navigate the website efficiently. Key challenges included unclear information architecture, confusing and disfuntional filters, poor visual hierarchy, low visual contrast, weak affordance, misleading labels and icons, and friction when finding researchers, reports, and contact information. These issues increased cognitive load and reduced trust in the platform.

Research Approach & Insights

We conducted qualitative research with 5 researchers and students using:

Think-aloud usability testing method
Eye-tracking to observe navigation and attention patterns
Semi-structured interviews and task-based testing

Participants were recruited based on their active involvement in academic research, including university lecturers and undergraduate and graduate students from different disciplines.

Key insights:

All users expected a global search function
Users lacked a clear way to search and filter content; Filters were either unnoticed or worked against users (auto-filtering)
Labels and categories were misleading or unclear
Important content (reports, articles, contact details) was hard to find
Visual contrast and hierarchy made scanning difficult
Users struggled to distinguish between different researcher roles and content types

Process of designing the solution

Firstly, insights from interviews and usability testing were synthesized into three personas representing primary (university lecturer), secondary (student researcher), and tertiary (masters student in dire need of connecting with foreign researchers) user types, each with distinct fields, goals, needs, and frustrations. Then, a detailed scenario and user journey for the primary persona were created to map key tasks, emotional states, and pain points when navigating the platform. This helped identify high-friction moments and guided design decisions toward improving clarity, discoverability, and task efficiency.

Key design solutions included:

Redesigning the dashboard and welcome page to reduce cognitive load and improve visual hierarchy
Adding a prominent global search bar in an expected location
Improving header contrast and hover states for better readability
Redesigning the researcher filtering system (default “All”, clearer placement, more granular filters)
Enhanced navigation clarity
Updating icons and labels (especially for reports and events) to make actions self-explanatory
Simplifying and rebalancing the footer to remove confusion and improve contrast
Clear distinction between content types and researcher roles

Solutions were first explored through low-fidelity wireframes (shown below), then refined into high-fidelity wireframes and an interactive prototype.

Discover the prototype here!

Outcomes & Learnings

This project reinforced the value of combining behavioral observation with qualitative feedback, as the two do not always match when working with real users.

The final concept delivered a clearer, more intuitive, and more discoverable experience without altering the website’s core content or purpose.

Key learnings:

Small usability issues (default filters, unclear icons, contrast) can significantly block task completion
Users rely heavily on familiar UI patterns when navigating research platforms
Research-backed design decisions ground real user needs in the product, not just designer assumptions.