Project part 1: Project Proposal
INTRODUCTION
The Ocean Foundation aims to improve global ocean health, climate resilience, and the blue economy through partnerships and philanthropic initiatives. However, despite their commendable efforts, there may still be challenges or areas for improvement within their existing system. In this project, we plan to create a new website called Ocean Watch that modifies the Ocean Foundation website and adds some new features so that the website will be more organized and attractive.
PROBLEM 1
Limited Interactivity and Donor Communication
While The Ocean Foundation's system features a subscription option for newsletters and occasional reports, it lacks robust interactivity and communication channels for donors to engage directly with the organization. Donors may have questions, feedback, or suggestions regarding their contributions or specific conservation initiatives, but the current system does not provide adequate avenues for them to communicate effectively with the organization.
Without opportunities for direct communication, donors may feel disconnected from the impact of their contributions and less engaged with the organization's mission. Additionally, the inability to interact with donors in a meaningful way may hinder The Ocean Foundation's ability to cultivate donor relationships, gather valuable feedback, and foster a sense of community among supporters. Limited interactivity and inadequate communication with donors can reduce usability by complicating navigation and degrade the user experience by diminishing engagement and donor loyalty.
Reference: According to a study conducted by the Nonprofit Research Institute, 72% of donors prefer to engage with organizations that offer robust communication channels, highlighting the critical role of effective communication in donor engagement and retention. Providing donors with opportunities to communicate directly with the organization can strengthen relationships, increase donor retention rates, and ultimately support the organization's long-term sustainability and impact.
Pun, E. (2022) Donor retention strategies: Get donors to give again, Classy. Available at: https://www.classy.org/blog/want-donors-to-give-again-read-this/ (Accessed: 25 April 2024).
PROBLEM 2
Insufficient visual content
The Ocean Foundation's website lacks visual content that encourages visitors to browse. There currently are a few interesting photos or videos on the website's front page, which can discourage visitors from exploring the rest of the site. A lack of visual elements, including pictures of activities or images of current ocean issues, causes a gap between the organization's goal and vision and its users. As a result, users could struggle to empathize strongly with the organization's mission and become unmotivated to browse the website and join their activity. Furthermore, the page's rich language content may overwhelm visitors, making it more difficult for them to understand the organization's goals. Insufficient visual content may decrease usability by making interface more confusing and worsen user experience by reducing engagement.
Reference: Johnson, A. (2024). Visual Engagement Strategies in Web Design: A Case Study of The Ocean Cleanup's Website. Journal of Digital Media and User Experience, 8(2), 87-102.
PROBLEM 3
Limited Transparency and Impact Assessment
The Ocean Foundation’s own donation system might struggle to be sufficiently transparent about the results and contribution of its conservation effort. Users may find it frustrating and confusing when they try to figure out detailed information about where their donations go, what differences have been made by their support, or the outcomes of various initiatives. The lack of transparency could lead to a negative user experience, as users may feel disconnected from their mission of conserving the ocean, thus feeling uncertain or disappointed about supporting the organization financially or in action. Without a clear and accessible information architecture, it will hinder users' ability to find related information efficiently. Besides, users may encounter difficulty understanding the real-globe impact of The Ocean Foundation’s projects if the website lacks comprehensive information on outcomes and achievements. Therefore, the absence of compelling and tangible proof will diminish users' feelings of fulfillment from their support and may doubt the effectiveness of their contributions. Limited Transparency and Impact Assessment can lead to unclear system operation, which affects usability and has a negative impact on user experience by decreasing satisfaction and confidence.
Tenner, E. (2015). The Design of Everyday Things by Donald Norman. Technology and Culture, 56(3), 785–787. https://doi.org/10.1353/tech.2015.0104
SOLUTION 1
In the Ocean Watch website, we plan to add a new feature which is “OceanLink”. "OceanLink" is a user-friendly feature designed to address the communication and engagement challenges faced by The Ocean Foundation. Serving as a centralized hub, OceanLink consolidates communication channels and offers interactive features to facilitate meaningful connections among donors, partners, and the wider community. Interactive elements like discussion forums and volunteer sign-up forms are seamlessly integrated, encouraging active participation. The interface is optimized for mobile devices, ensuring that users can access OceanLink anytime, anywhere. With its streamlined communication interface, personalized engagement features, and transparent impact tracking, OceanLink empowers users to actively engage with the organization's mission of ocean conservation. Through intuitive tools for messaging, chat support, and discussion forums, donors and partners can easily connect with The Ocean Foundation's team, ask questions, and provide feedback. Personalized profiles and tailored updates ensure that users receive relevant information based on their interests and preferences, fostering a sense of ownership and engagement in conservation efforts. OceanLink also promotes collaboration and knowledge sharing through collaborative community tools, enabling users to join groups, participate in discussions, and collaborate on projects. Accessible via web browsers and mobile applications, OceanLink ensures easy access for users across devices, promoting inclusivity and engagement among a diverse global audience. With an accessible interface and data-driven strategies, OceanLink ensures that all users can easily navigate and engage with the platform, fostering a sense of community and mobilizing support for ocean conservation efforts worldwide.
SOLUTION 2
To address the problem of insufficient visual content on The Ocean Foundation’s website and improve the engagement of the user, the new website can incorporate more visual content by adding more high-quality photos or videos about the organization’s activity, and the current state of the ocean to the website to capture the user’s attention so and user can feel more engaged in protecting the ocean. Besides, the website can add some photos or videos related to the current ocean issues such as water pollution, plastic pollution and marine life losing their shelter. These photos and videos can encourage users to join the organization’s activity. Additionally, photos that show the ocean after and before clean-up can be used on the website to show the difference and the impact of the organization’s activity. Next, the website can use simple and clear text instead of heavy text to display the organization’s mission and vision, activity. This can effectively communicate with the wider users.
The Ocean Cleanup. (2024). The Ocean Cleanup. https://theoceancleanup.com
SOLUTION 3
Therefore, the new website should add a unique feature, which is an “Impact Visualization-equipped Donation Timeline,” to ensure the donation progress is visible and reliable. The purpose of the timeline is to show that after collecting public donations up to a predetermined level, the organization launches its conservation efforts, and every phase of the progress—regardless of the stage reached—is tracked on a timeline. At the same time, the results from user support will be highlighted on the main page and will be in the same area as the timeline, attached with a few pictures and videos. This evidence will lead users to feel connected and engaged with the organization’s mission when they view the achievement and comprehend their critical role in protecting our precious mother earth’s gift, the ocean.
TARGET USERS
With the aid of these new features, these Ocean lovers can stay updated on the conservation activities carried out by the organization. Besides, they can discover opportunities to participate in volunteer activities and ocean conservation projects if the venue is near their region. Moreover, these ocean lovers can also raise awareness about the importance of ocean conservation with their family and friends by sharing information from OceanLink.
2. Donors
With the Impact Visualization-equipped Donation Timeline, donors who support the organization’s conservation efforts by donating money to the organization can monitor the usage of donation on the effort of supporting ocean conservation activities. This is because the Visualization-equipped Donation Timeline provides the doners with a user-friendly interface where they can see detailed information about the projects and activities their donations support for such as the progress update of the projects and the fund allocation for each project and activities.
3. General public
The presence of OceanLink will act as an entry point for the public that is not familiar with the mission of the organization and ocean conservation to raise awareness about ocean conservation. Through this feature, the public can easily gain knowledge from the OceanLink on some tips to protect the ocean in their daily lives and support ocean conservation although they do not join the organization. Moreover, the public can know more about the conservation projects through the visual contents added on the website.
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