“If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will take you there”.
To make things easier to visualize, we’ve remixed the treasure map by Jeffery Callender and Peter Morville. Our map matches the order in which we plan to produce certain deliverables. If you are new to User Experience (UX), we invite you to check out Jeffery and Peter’s original work. They have done an amazing job at describing the relevance and scope of each items with links to useful resources and examples.
Project Phases
There will be five phases that lead us to the delivery of the first new Greenpeace.org site. More sites for specific Greenpeace offices will then follow. We aim at completing all of these first five phases before the end of the year. We’ll need your help to get there!
- Discovery: In this phase, the focus will be on surveying Greenpeace.org users and consolidating our analytics data in order to define the functional and technical requirements.
- Concept: With the help of the data collected during the discovery, we will use this phase to discuss new ideas that improve the user experience and visualize them using prototypes.
- Design: During this phase we will build a clear picture of the new visual language as well as the details of the technical approach. Additionally, we will focus on the content for the pilot site.
- Development: The development team will build a first version based on the blueprints produced in the design phase. Of course, we will refine design, content and specifications iteratively where needed.
- Pilot site rollout: This phase corresponds to the rollout of the first site(s) as well as the follow up development and design improvements based on test results.
A more complete project definition is available in our draft Project Baseline Document. It contains more information about the scope, the constraints, the expected team roles and structure, etc.
The Discovery Phase
The main objectives of this Discovery phase to gather data to be able to make decisions during the next phase of the project, e.g. make sure we design a product with the needs of our end user in mind. Here are some of the key deliverables we will produce in this phase:
Storytelling approach and engagement strategy: We will build on the existing work done by Greenpeace storytelling team to define what it means for the website. This will result in best practices and concrete guidelines, in the form of a “content and engagement strategy” document.
Content Inventory & Audit: Before making a change to the sitemap and content, we need to have a careful look at what is already there! The content inventory will answer the question “what is there?” on the website and the audit “is it good?” as per our new storytelling approach. We will be looking, for example, at any major differences between our global web sites in terms of sitemap or messaging.
Analytics Review and KPI Selection: We will try answer the questions “what can we measure?”, “what do we want to measure?” and “how are we doing right now?”. We will be looking, for example, at indicators such as conversion and retention rates.
Surveys and Focus Groups: We will design and build surveys to directly ask users their opinion on the future of our online presence. Focus groups will help answer “is it really what you need?” e.g. give us an additional insight in the survey data results.
Technical Investigation: We will start looking into “how are we going to build it?”. This first draft will explore the different architectural choices and propose draft processes for development, testing, deployment, hosting. We will look also at the options for integration with other engagement systems.
You can find more information about the deliverables and approach in the Discovery Stage Plan document. This document is still a draft as our next step is indeed to form a bigger team and assign the responsibilities for each deliverables and draw timelines!
Getting Involved
If you are interested in volunteering some of your time to help us with the Discovery Phase, please let us know who you are and what you’re interested in via this form. Someone will then get in touch with you directly by email!
We’re hoping that minds from across the Greenpeace ecosystem can help us during this phase as it will set the tone for the rest of the project. Greenpeace.org belongs to all of us, get involved and help us plan its future!
You’re always welcome to reach out to us individually if you have something you’d like to contribute, regardless of which phase we happen to be in.
Of course you can also give us your feedback about the approach or any other aspect in the comment section below!
Update 03/09/2016
With this project starting in the summer holiday season we knew we would have a slow start, so bear with us as we creating the first working groups. It may take another one or two weeks before we reach out to you if you completed the survey.
Credits
Special thanks to Laura, Kelli and Natasja for contributing to this post.
Map background by Tim Jones CC-BY 2.0 https://www.flickr.com/photos/27613359@N03/6902458306
Icons by Peter Morville CC-BY 2.0 https://www.flickr.com/photos/morville/sets/72157612907604234
User Experience Deliverables by Jeffery Callender and Peter Morville.
