Make America Dinner Again
UX Research into user retention and
user bounce-off rates.
THE PROBLEM
How can we increase the frequency of MADA dinner discussions, while also identifying and addressing any user experience barriers that may discourage individuals from hosting or participating in these dinners?
WHAT IS MAKE AMERICA DINNER AGAIN?
Make America Dinner Again (MADA) is a “nationwide not-for-profit organization dedicated to creating better understanding across the political divide”. They have been depolarizing and bridging communities through respectful, guided dinner conversations since 2016.
Their userbase consists primarily of dinner hosts and dinner guests, among other people generally interested in the MADA movement towards understanding and empathy of one another, who voluntarily sign up to either host a MADA dinner or attend a MADA dinner discussion.
WHAT'S THE PROBLEM?
While there are many who express interest in attending a MADA dinner as a guest, in contrast, there are not as many who express interest in hosting a dinner. And, even amongst those who have expressed interest to host a dinner, few have successfully followed through to hosting a dinner.
TOOLS
METHODS
Figma,
Google Suite
Heuristic evaluation, Information Architecture, Usability testings, User research (interviews and surveys), Affinity Mapping, Navigation flow
KEY GOAL
Understand MADA users journeys and identify any barriers to hosting their own MADA dinner
MY ROLE
UX Research to pinpoint the barriers affecting user engagement and participation
My investigation prioritized answering these questions:
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What are our primary target users, MADA dinner hosts, experiencing?
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How can we increase the number of MADA dinner hosts signing up and ultimately increase the number of MADA conversations taking place?
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Are there any simple UX suggestions we can make to help the MADA team support even better their users’ journeys?
FINDINGS
CTA confusion, information hierarchy issues, and Covid-19 quarantine concerns
HEURISTIC EVALUATION
Heuristic evaluation of the current website and user experience platform revealed potential problem areas in overall findability and discoverability.
A hypothesis was generated that by improving CTA arrangement and information architecture, especially in MADA's dinner host guide, we can provide a more findable, motivating experience and thereby increase target user (dinner host) retention rates and conversion rates.
INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE ANALYSIS
The current information architecture buries information that is relevant and motivating users to become dinner hosts.
Information for interested dinner hosts and guests was not differentiable, especially with regard to their respective CTA buttons. And, the "meat and bone" to keeping users motivated to host a MADA dinner was not prioritized in the existing IA.
USABILITY TESTING
Usability testing revealed that users getting lost in the sign-up flow and in the dinner host guide.
Host sign-up form CTA buttons were too closely lumped together with the guest sign-up forms leading to users going down the wrong sign-up flow. And, in the dinner host guide, users weren't able to find the information that they were looking for easily to address their concerns to hosting dinners.
Below is a screen capture of a user selecting the "San Francisco, CA" button to try and sign up to host a dinner rather than the red CTA host sign-up button below it.
NAVIGATION FLOW
A navigation flow diagram was created to reflect how users attempting to sign up to host a MADA dinner were failing and emphasize the specific problem areas - clustered sign-up CTA buttons and host guide.
USER RESEARCH
According to BJ Fogg's behavioral model, "three elements must converge at the same moment for a behavior to occur: Motivation, Ability, and a Prompt."
Understanding this, user interviews and surveys were conducted to better understand MADA hosts and guests, with a particular focus on their motivations and abilities.
User interviews and surveys confirmed drop-off rates: 94.7% of responders expressed interest in hosting a MADA dinner but only about 16.7% of them successfully followed through with actually hosting a MADA dinner discussion, leaving a whomping 83.3% unsuccessful in hosting a dinner.
It also revealed potential dinner hosts' top motivating factors and top concerns to hosting a MADA dinner. Affinity mapping of the responses revealed the top 3 most commonly expressed motivations for people interested in hosting a dinner were Unity/Unification, Talking, and Understanding as well as Meeting People and, of course, Food. And, the top 3 most commonly expressed barriers for people interested in hosting a dinner were regarding Diversity in guests, Recruiting dinner guests, and Facilitating conversations.
Using these insights, recommendations were made to enhance potential dinner hosts' experiences on MADA's platform with the goal to increase retention and conversion rates.
Dinner Host Motivation
Dinner Host Concerns
TITLE OF THE CALLOUT BLOCK
RECOMMENDATIONS
CTA rearrangement, Imagery, FAQ section or visual FAQ carousel, Go virtual
As an MVP, I ideated that a simple modification of unclustering CTA buttons could be a first step toward successful signups. The dinner host sign-up button can be put to the Header Navigation or the cluster of guest CTA buttons can be moved to a separate section of the Home Page. “White space” using margins and paddings can also be another alternative option to increase differentiation between host CTA’s and guest CTA’s. And, as another alternative, completely separating out guest flows from host sign-ups and changing the information hierarchy of the landing page in a way that prioritizes the needs of our target users appropriately prompting and motivating them can also yield high value.
Another area discovered requiring improvement was in keeping potential hosts motivated to host a dinner prior to having signed up. Imagery can be powerful in accomplishing that. In addition to making relevant information more easily accessible and establishing a clear hierarchy, integrating images and videos showcasing the wonderful MADA dinner experiences and highlighting the appealing qualities of hosting and fostering dinner conversations can directly resonate with potential dinner hosts, serving as an additional means of encouraging desired behavioral responses.
Further, with regards to the MADA Dinner Host Guide, though super helpful as it is comprehensive, it can be a lot of information to take in for people new to hosting. Offering higher-level navigation categories like a FAQ or Topic Carousel that speaks directly to the top-level concerns expressed by dinner hosts in our data, can help target users find more relevant morsels of information faster with lower effort helping reduce the perceived high workload of hosting a dinner.
Lastly, due to this project being during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, users voiced concerns over meeting in person. This was a breakthrough finding that led to an instrumental recommendation of transitioning to virtual meetups and having virtual dinner conversations. This can overcome the concerns and barriers to holding MADA conversations and also overcome quarantine-related in-person meetup concerns.
DISCOVERMORE OF MY WORKS
Case Studies