Viet Endangered Narratives Case Study

Overview

Vietnam’s Vulnerability to Climate Change

In the face of escalating climate change, Vietnam is one of the most vulnerable countries to environmental changes. Threats like floods endanger both the region’s millions of inhabitants and wildlife. As industrialization increases, the problem continues to worsen for those who live there.

I worked on a team of four designers for Viet Endangered Narratives (VEN), a non-profit that highlights Vietnamese conservation efforts with films, to research and design a website to increase user engagement. The case study covers the research done and will be later updated with the design!

Screen capture of VEN’s award winning film, Da Nang: City of Biodiversity

Problem

Small and Humble Beginnings

VEN aims to share their documentaries to highlight Vietnam’s biodiversity to encourage travelers to volunteer. With the exception of some universities abroad, their reach doesn't go far beyond Vietnam's borders. As a small non-profit, they struggle to establish a prominent enough presence to attract volunteers.

To tackle this problem, our team asked ourselves:

How do increase VEN's engagement and traffic to their films and volunteer programs?

Setting Up Research

Before jumping into the research, it was crucial to have a foundational understanding of our target audience to guide future interviews. The team and I discussed with a stakeholder who we want to appeal to and any potential considerations for research, content, or branding.

Our Target Audience

Our audience is young adult volunteers and foreign volunteer programs

By targeting both groups, VEN hopes to attract travelers to Vietnam who are interested in ecotourism or are studying abroad through their country’s program to support their efforts.

Understanding the Field

Deep Dive: Conservation and Leading Orgs

As someone unfamiliar with conservation, I needed to understand the topic to discuss related concepts and language in user interviews. To get started, another volunteer and I interviewed four conservationists in the field and reviewed conservation groups before navigating uncharted waters.

World Wildlife Fund’s impact page, showing the power of community

Speaking to experts was an incredible experience and gave a glimpse into their work, but we needed to reel in relevant details for the project. After compiling our notes, we had the following takeaways.

Notable Takeaways

1. Current Threats in Vietnam

The greatest threats to Vietnamese wildlife are economic development, weather changes, and harmful tourism. A lack of coverage on these issues can worsen their impact.

2. Storytelling to Highlight Action

These groups visually highlight their impact and follow with ways to support and empower individuals by showing that even small contributions make an impact.

3. Provide Options for Support

To encourage young adults to volunteer with VEN, we must cater our content and support methods to their interests, such as patrols and local engagement.

Interviewing Our Users

Learning from other sites and conservationists is valuable, but if I really wanted to dig deep into improving user engagement, I needed to speak to the source: potential users. I interviewed 6 conservation enthusiasts on how they learn about conservation and how they engage with the topic.

Interview with participant who discussed their frustrations with the content layout

A Desire for Credibility and Authenticity

While each participant had differences while researching, the ideas of credibility and impact came up again and again. A student interested in desertification commented on how this affects their view of a source.

“I like a mix of [data and perspectives of people involved]. I only like an opinion if they have a right or they are immediately affected by the situation, and something like that caught my eye. Like wow, this process is ruining people’s lives, and that matters.“

Connecting the Dots

After the interviews, I compiled the interviewees’ responses and found patterns in each interview and among each other by mapping them based on certain behaviors. This uncovered common traits and needs that our future users need when learning conservation and supporting the VEN.

Section of behavioral mapping scales to determine interviewee patterns

While there were common responses in the interviews, I found the following patterns after distinguishing two potential user types: the casual learner and the in-depth researcher.

Uncovered Patterns

1. Credibility is King

5 of 6 participants prioritized credible sources based on visual branding and transparency of sources and their work.

2. Drowning Out the Dread

4 of the 6 participants desired a balance of environmental solutions and “small wins” to motivate individuals and show the potential for valuable impact.

3. Surface-Level or Digging Deep

All participants preferred a summary and a mix of visuals and data to help them learn about conservation, whether in an article or on social media.

Defining User Needs

To guide the website design, I created a primary persona and secondary personas to represent the individual user types. These personas help to visualize and summarize the users’ needs when presenting research findings for stakeholders and other viewers.

Meet Emily and Jasmine

The primary persona, Emily, is a college student whose passion for helping others sparked when she first learned about the Ohio train derailment on social media. However, she struggles to understand environmental topics but hopes to help in any way she can.

Part of Emily Wilson’s persona template

The secondary persona, Emily, is a microbiologist who has similar desires to Emily but understands more about the environment. She commonly finds sources she doesn’t think are reliable and aren’t backed by data. She hopes to dig deep into certain topics, knowing that the content is credible.

Part of Jasmine Harris’s persona template

For details on Emily and Jasmine, refer to their persona sheets.

Direction for Design

After reviewing my notes on the field research and synthesized interview data, I compiled actionable recommendations for the future website design and branding.

Example of transparency in Re:Wild’s donation page

Target Credibility and Transparency

Since VEN is a small organization, we need to ensure that users trust VEN’s work and impact. After all, who would volunteer for a group they didn’t trust?

Some ways we can do this is by showcasing behind-the-scenes work and fund usage.

Example of positive wins in Fauna and Flora’s homepage

Showcase Wins and Progress

Since the interviewees found environmental news can cause anxiety and anger, we can motivate users by showing that there’s value in supporting sustainable initiatives.

We can show progress VEN has accomplished like awards or general environmental wins.

Example of a summary in a National Geographic article

Start with Concise Information with Option for Detail

With our two users wanting various levels of detail, it’s a matter of balancing simplicity with complexity. Without having both, we can end up disappointing both users.

We can start broad and then provide more details, like including a summary for articles.

Example of navigation links on Audubon’s homepage

Have Clear Navigation and Access to Related Topics

If users have to spend more effort to find VEN’s work and films, they’re likely to leave to search for other content that’s easier to find.

We need to focus on cultivating the navigation to VEN’s content to provide more opportunities to engage with the content.

Example of different stories with images in World Wildlife Fund

Show Information in Various Forms of Media

To help our users understand and digest the content, we need to balance the text and visuals on the site.

This is crucial on pages where we showcase our work, so we need to provide the details of our work and visuals of its impact.

Challenges

Working with VEN was an incredible experience because I not only got to work with volunteers across the globe but also designed for a topic I’m passionate about. That being said, there were hiccups in the process that the team worked together to combat.

Obstacles in the Process

1. Team of Volunteers

While everyone was driven to work on this project, many of us had other work commitments. It was difficult to convene, but we ensured that we updated our progress regularly online.

2. Different Time Zones

Because the team had huge gaps in time zones (almost 10 hours!), we struggled to find times to meet. To combat this, we met on weekends when we could all contribute to the discussion.

3. Design Management Shift

Our original manager, who was leading the design initiative, left due to personal reasons. I stepped in to ensure the team was on track by leading meetings and design direction.

Viet Endangered Narratives

How can we motivate people to engage with conservation efforts?

Role

Time

Tools

Deliverable