Insurance

Next Sense

USER TESTING - EXISTING WEBSITE / DESIGN PROTOTYPE / STAGING
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Stage One

Existing website testing

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Stage Two

Design Testing

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Stage Three

Staging Testing

About the Company

Founded in 1869, The Royal New South Wales Institution for Deaf and Blind Children recently rebranded as Nextsense, a registered NDIS provider supporting children, adults, and families affected by hearing or vision loss. Their new website featured an unconventional structure, with navigation designed to promote open-ended exploration. However, concerns arose regarding the discoverability of key content. The client sought to determine whether this was indeed an issue and, if so, whether it was significant enough to warrant a major redesign of the structure and menus.

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Objectives

  • Evaluate overall usability
  • Assess how easily key content could be discovered
  • Understand the users’ sense-making process

Our Approach – Discovery and Research

Collaborated with multiple stakeholders to design a research plan tailored to the organization’s goals.

Recruited testers with lived experiences of hearing loss or those caring for children with similar challenges, ensuring authenticity and relevance in feedback.

Conducted:

  • Moderated sessions to explore how users approached navigation and sense-making.
  • Unmoderated sessions to uncover usability challenges in a real-world context.

Designed a custom post-test survey to capture UX metrics and probe specific aspects of the site design.
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Our Approach – Testing and Analysis

What Worked Well:

  • The visual design resonated positively with users.
  • Technical content was regarded as valuable when users could find it.

Areas for Improvement:

  • Discoverability Issues: Users struggled to locate key information, often feeling lost within the unconventional navigation.
  • Brand Communication Gap: Many users misunderstood the website as a purely commercial platform, which affected their willingness to engage.

Unexpected Insight:

  • Users appreciated the open-ended exploration but needed clearer indicators of their location within the site to navigate confidently.
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Findings

  • Research Design:
    • Testers with personal or caregiving experience of hearing loss were recruited.
    • Collaboration with stakeholders ensured the research design addressed organizational needs.
    • Moderated sessions explored users’ sense-making processes.
    • Unmoderated sessions identified specific usability and UX issues.
    • A custom post-test survey gathered additional feedback and UX metrics.
    • Each session was analyzed to identify and prioritize UX issues by severity.
  • Findings:
    • The unconventional design successfully encouraged open-ended exploration.
    • Visual design and content were well-received when users could locate it.
    • Navigation issues left users uncertain about their location and hindered access to key information.
    • A critical brand communication failure led many users to mistake the site for a commercial venture, reducing engagement.
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The Results

Recommendations:

  • Proposed actionable solutions to enhance navigation, align brand communication with user expectations, and improve the visibility of critical content.
  • Facilitated a collaborative wrap-up session with stakeholders to prioritize changes based on organizational goals and budget constraints.

Results:

  • The client implemented small, immediate changes to address usability concerns while integrating insights into plans for a future website redesign.

Why This Matters

This project demonstrates our expertise in balancing innovative design with user accessibility. By combining rigorous testing, authentic user feedback, and actionable insights, we empowered NextSense to better serve its community while honoring its rebrand goals.