CASE STUDY | ux research
Signaling Safety by Providing Inclusive Identity Options
Like LAX and Philly’s potholes, we are under construction!
There’s always something to add to a story—new illustrations, structural adjustments, or clarifications. In the case study in progress below, you may see multiple iterations on a section, layout experiments, and more.
I believe sharing the process is how design and communication improve, so feel free to take a look!
Have questions about what you see, or curious to learn the rest of the story?
Overview
Problem to solve
Earlier phases of research and design indicated that users were not satisfied with the options for gender identity, sexual orientation, race, and ethnicity during profile creation.
In Phase 4 of app iteration, the User Experience Research team needed to:
Determine best practices for gathering demographic data about LGBTQ+ users, and
Identify which identity terms to include in the onboarding menus.
Our biggest goal was to create a digital space where young users from marginalized groups would feel welcome and find themselves fully, accurately represented. This goal is crucial to user comfort and retention, and aligns with the client’s mission to uplift LGBTQIA+ youth through inclusivity and effective resources.
Letting users identify themselves fully was extra important because a future goal for the app is to have it suggest good matches between mentors and mentees. Any identity data used in matching these two user types should be as accurate at possible in order to enable positive and successful matches at a later stage of product development.
Research approach
[methods]
Validation and recommendations
[to UX, UI, and content]
Impact
[change H4 style]
On the product
On the team and the client
On the process
Project specs
Case study credits
Industry
EdTech (SaaS, DTC)
Company
American Reading Company Reading and writing solutions for grades K-12
Product
Academic data collection tool and dashboard
Product Stage
Refinements (10+ yrs)
Platform
Web app, desktop
My Roles
UX Researcher, UX Designer, UI Designer
Team Members
Project Manager, Developer, 3 Support Team stakeholders
Scope
Discovery, guide decision making, prototype, handoff
Tools
Figma, Confluence, Jira
Thrive Out Loud wireframes
The wireframes in this case study were created by the amazing UX Design and Content Design teams for Tech Fleet’s collaboration with Sean’s Legacy, Phase 4 and following Mini Phase, February-June 2024.
Research artifacts
All research documents, composite user quotes, and findings are drawn from collaborative work by the Phase 4 UXR team and from the research repository and valuable documentation compiled by researchers in Phases 1-3.
Illustrations
I composed these images from Excalidraw libraries, created them in Figma, and built collages with elements from both apps.
Overview
Problem to Solve
Earlier phases of research and design indicated that users were not yet satisfied with the options presented for gender identity, sexual orientation, race, and ethnicity during profile creation.
In Phase 4 of app iteration, the User Experience Research team needed to:
Determine best practices for gathering demographic data from LGBTQ+ users, and
Identify which identity terms to include in the onboarding menus.
Our biggest goal was to create a digital space where young users from marginalized groups would feel welcome and find themselves fully, accurately represented. This goal is crucial to user comfort and retention, and aligns with the client’s mission to uplift LGBTQIA+ youth through inclusivity and effective resources.
Letting users identify themselves fully was extra important because a future goal for the app is to have it suggest good matches between mentors and mentees. Any identity data used in matching these two user types should be as accurate at possible in order to enable positive and successful matches at a later stage of product development.
Overview
Problem to Solve
Earlier phases of research and design indicated that users were not yet satisfied with the options presented for gender identity, sexual orientation, race, and ethnicity during profile creation. In Phase 4 of app iteration, the User Experience Research team needed to determine best practices for gathering demographic data from LGBTQ+ users, and to identify which identity terms to include in the onboarding menus.
Our biggest goal was to create a digital space where young users from marginalized groups would feel welcomed and fully, accurately represented. This goal is crucial to user comfort and retention, and it aligns with the client’s mission to support and uplift LGBTQIA+ youth through inclusivity and effective resources.
Project Specs
Industry
Nonprofit
Organization
Sean’s Legacy — LGBTQ advocacy
Product
Thrive Out Loud — Native app to match mentees with professional mentors
Product Type
DTC
Platform
Mobile and desktop
Scope
- Audit past research findings
- Desk research
- Heuristic evaluation
- User interviews
- Moderated user testing
- Data synthesis and analysis
- Recommendations and presentations
- Documentation creation and organization
My Role
UX Researcher
Team Members
UX Research team of 6 working with a full department of designers, developers, project and product managers, content specialists, and two members of the nonprofit client staff
Tools
Figma, FigJam, Notion, Google Workspace, Zoom, LettuceMeet