RSPB

Background

The RSPB (Royal Society For The Protection of Birds) is an organisation that promotes the conservation and protection of birds, wildlife and the wider environment through public awareness and education.

As a charity, the RSPB relies heavily on revenue from paid memberships, as well as donations. Although membership subscriptions were rising overall, the organisation had discovered that the online membership journey was converting very poorly, although it was not known why.

The approach

• 1. Discovery - identify friction points within the existing journey
• 2. Wireframing - visualise an optimised end-to-end journey
  
• 3. User testing - measure the success of the new journey and gain further insight

1. Discovery

I conducted a series of quantitative and qualitative research methods to gain insight into the problem. Hotjar was used to track the activity of new members during the signup process by using heatmaps and screen recordings.

To get feedback from existing members, I created and shared a questionnaire which asked them to describe their experience of the online sign up process.

Main issues:

• Value proposition - users did not understand the main benefits of RSPB membership and why they should pay for it
• Payment options - users found the different payment options confusing and had difficulty selecting the right option for their needs
  
• Checkout process - users found the checkout process long winded and usability issues often led to confusion and/or abandonment

2. Wireframing

I prototyped a new sign-up journey that began on a dedicated landing page, clearly explaining the benefits of membership to users as well as the pricing options. Users would then pay using an improved checkout form.

Two versions of the landing page were designed for A/B testing. One version had the key information and checkout form on a single page. The other broke the checkout process out over several steps. My assumption was that introducing a stepped process may reduce friction.

3. Testing

In-person user interviews & task analysis were conducted with five participants. The interviews uncovered new insight and allowed me and the product team to further refine our understanding of the original problem.

The task analysis gave me an opportunity to understand how users interacted with the new designs. I was able to see how the new designs had improved things for users and what friction points still remained.

• Value proposition - most users felt the presentation of benefits was much clearer, but some questions persisted
• Payment options - most users felt the pricing options were much better presented and had the information they needed to make a descision
  
• Form usability - most users found the the usability of forms and the updated checkout process to be far easier to use

Outcomes

The feedback from the user testing was used to iterate on the design of the new user journeys. The designs were then handed over to the development team for real world A/B testing with users.

Because of organisational changes within the RSPB, my contract with the charity ended shortly after this work started. However, it went on to form the foundation of ongoing improvements and enhancements to their website.