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Northern Gardener
The Minnesota Horticultural Society has served its gardening community for 154 years. With the COVID pandemic, there has been an increase in the interest in gardening and recently they launched a new feature page within their website - the Resource Hub. The intention of the Hub is to connect gardeners with reliable gardening resources specific to the Northern region. The resources include content from their own Northern Gardener magazine, the Northern Gardener blog as well as links to their trusted partners.
Our team was asked to recommend a meaningful redesign of the new hub page that would provide gardeners of all levels with easy access to credible and relevant resources . The stakeholder meeting gave us an overview of their vision for MSHS over all- which is in the process of updating their brand. Their current membership is primarily aged 60-70, suburban, white women and they would like to expand and diversify everything: ages, interest levels (beginners), areas (urban).
MY TEAM:
MAGE Emde, Manola Suvannarad,
Melissa Ho, Siri Jorstad
MY ROLE:
• Research (primary research, comparative analysis, participant interviews, card sort, personas, usability tests)
• Design (sketches, wireframes, prototype)
TOOLS:
• Figma, Photoshop, Invision, Miro, Zoom
DIGGING INTO THE GARDENING SPACE
Interviews and card sort
Our research included interviews with 13 participants with varying degrees of interest and experience in gardening to understand their goals, values and motivations. A card sort helped us gain insight into how users organized and grouped information that made sense to them.
What is the users level of interest in gardening?
Where do they currently look for info when they have questions?
What do they like/dislike about current resource hub?
Comparative analysis, secondary research
A MSHS survey of current members, other sites with information hubs, horticultural sites and Google analytics.
Content audit
The content audit of the resource hub revealed some imbalance under categories in terms of formats of resources.
Key takeaways:
- participants were used to utilizing search tools
- information specific to their zone was a priority
- the information on the resource hub was relevant, but a lot of text to get through made it overwhelming
- members surveyed commented on lack of search for magazine content digitally
Original Northern Gardener.org Resource Hub page
“I don't know if I would read through
until I found what I wanted.”
Initial sketches of hub redesign
Redesign of Resource Hub
• a second navigation was added with broad content categories supplemented with icons for visibility.
• the addition of features allows for a customizable layout so relevant, seasonal and popular topics can be prioritized.
• icons denoting the format (ie., youtube video, reading material, webinar, etc.).
• after one round of usability tests we learned users preferred to scan and identify content by photos. A brief overview of each feature was also added.
• category pages now have subcategories and each item is accompanied by a brief description and photo.
The information architecture diagram maps out the current content in the hub and places them under suggested new categories and subcategories. The colors show which content is a Northern Gardener resource and which links take the user somewhere else.
Information Architecture (Siri Jorstad)
Multi-phase Plan
Our team created a multi-phased strategy for the Northern Gardener Resource Hub to help our client address immediate and long-term content strategy goals, in a manageable way. The redesign of the Resource Hub is part of phase one. Along with a site wide content inventory and audit to assess, update, prioritize content. Finally, establishing a set of standards to evaluate content so it is timely and remains valuable to users.
Phase two: addressing search capabilities
Over 90% of research participants rely on a search function when they are seeking answers to their gardening questions. Incorporating a search functionality that includes all the content on the site/within the hub is necessary in order to maintain user engagement, retainment and credibility.
Phase three: additional organization and management
As the volume of content grows, the need for organization will be critical to retain users. A menu that collapses/expands would allow flexibility with managing content. Adding subcategories that target popular and relevant subjects will help the users maintain a direct route to their interests.
Phase four: integration
Incorporating other areas–promotions, programs, events and the blog in with the resources to encourage exploration of entire site. We also recommended follow up research periodically as a way of checking in with users to stay connected with their needs.
Phase 3 - Expandable menu option
Implementation plan - Manola Suvannard
“Now we have a vision.”
final thoughts
Our team was thoughtful about the amount of work involved with our recommendations for each phase. All of the recommendations for Phase 1 utilized current MSHS resources- so those updates could be implemented as soon as they wanted. Based on our findings, we know the value of the search tool to users is an important and necessary improvement which will take a little more time. Our client was thrilled to have the potential of the resource hub translated into a vision.