Context
The Coquitlam River Community Garden, formerly known as the Colony Farm Community Garden, is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to promoting sustainable and organic gardening while fostering a strong sense of community. As a gardener at the time, I initiated an unprecedented user research effort to guide the website redesign. This included identifying usability issues on the existing site, restructuring the IA, creating high-fidelity UI designs, and presenting progress updates to my team. AI-assisted UX research analysis had been revisited in Summer/Fall 2025 after the initial website redesign.
The state of the website when starting this project is linked here.
Research Goal
Understand how well the community garden’s website supports core user needs:
Accessing garden resources
Finding garden contacts
Finding community updates
Research Questions
Who are the prospective users of the CRCG website?
How do the existing garden members use the CRCG website?
What are major pain points with searching for resources with the existing website? What else is stopping users from using the website?
Research Methods & Process
1. Usability Assessment
I conducted a structured usability assessment using a task-based script. Participants were asked to complete three common tasks:
Find a garden plot (Plot #10 – Artichokes)
Locate the contacts list
Identify the date of the first work party
For each task, participants reported the number of steps, perceived difficulty (1–5 scale), and any pitfalls or suggestions.
Why both methods?
The usability assessment revealed current pain points directly from garden members navigating the existing site.
The competitive analysis feature table exposed gaps in functionality by comparing CRCG’s available features with the available features of two equivalent local nonprofit organization websites.
The competitive evaluation exposed opportunities to improve current user flows, reinforcing the importance of discoveries made during the usability assessment.
Success Metrics
Stronger visibility in garden event scheduling and viewing.
Greater flexibility in accessing and viewing garden resources.
Reduce the amount of time spent searching for specific information or terms.
Reduce the amount of time spent searching for garden executive contact info.
Strengthen presence within the garden community and general community outreach via enhanced information architecture and visual design.
Participant / User Demographics
Criteria:
existing members of the CRCG
have used the current website for informative purposes (for existing members)
diversity between fluent English proficiency and English as a foreign language
one person outside of the CRCG
Recruitment was done by the Garden President
Sample size N = 13
The unmoderated user test was active for approximately 2 weeks.
Key Findings
Unmoderated Usability Assessment Findings
Evaluating how effectively users could complete core garden website tasks.
Task 1: Find the item “Plot #10 – Artichokes”
Completion: 84.6% | Avg. Difficulty: 2.9 | Avg. Steps: 2.7
🔍 Common Insights
Metric | Value |
|---|---|
Completion Rate | 10 / 13 (76.9%) |
Avg. Difficulty (1–5) | 3.2 |
Avg. Steps Taken | 4.3 |
Common Failure Cause | Misplaced expectations of where “Contacts” would be found |
🎯 Implications
Rename or clarify “Demo Plots” terminology
Introduce consistent navigation labels
Add a global search bar to reduce guesswork
Task 2: Locate the contacts list
Completion: 76.9% | Avg. Difficulty: 3.2 | Avg. Steps: 4.3
🔍 Common Insights
Theme | What This Means |
|---|---|
Expectation Mismatch | Users expected all contact info under Contact Us, not buried in Member Documents. |
Inefficient IA | Users explored multiple pages before success; site hierarchy didn’t match mental models. |
Low Visual Hierarchy | Even when found, contact list lacked clear visual cues to stand out as key content. |
🎯 Implications
Move contact directory under Contact Us or About Us
Use card layouts/icons to highlight key contacts
Add short intro text to set context
Task 3: Identify the date of the first work party
Completion: 92.3% | Avg. Difficulty: 2.6 | Avg. Steps: 3.0
🔍 Common Insights
Theme | What This Means |
|---|---|
Duplicate Labels | “Documents” vs. “Member Documents” caused repeated misclicks. |
Hidden Calendar Placement | Users didn’t expect event info buried in files — needed a clear Events section. |
Low Scannability | Static file lists slowed users; they wanted a visual, at-a-glance calendar. |
🎯 Implications
Merge or rename “Documents” tabs for clarity
Add dedicated Events/Calendar navigation item
Offer interactive calendar (e.g., Google Calendar embed)
Competitive Analysis Feature Comparison Findings
Understanding how CRCG’s site stacks up against peers in available features that correlate to discovered pain points from the usability assessment.
Key Feature Gaps
Missing / Limited Feature | CRCG Status | Competitors | Related Pain Points |
Interactive Event Calendar | Static PDF only | ✅ Both | Interactivity · Navigation clarity |
Embedded Learning Content | PDFs only | ✅ Both | Accessibility · Static content |
Integrated Blog / Newsletter Feed | External link | ✅ Both | Labeling · Visual hierarchy |
Online Sign-up Forms | ❌ Missing | 🟨 (RPCG only) | Navigation · Interactivity |
“Nice-to-Have” Opportunities
Feature | Exists in Both? | Relevance | Notes |
Image Gallery | ❌ | Medium | Strengthens community identity. |
Workshop Registration | 🟨 (RPCG) | Low | Useful for outreach expansion. |
Blog Integration | ✅ | Medium | Encourages engagement & updates. |
⭐ Key Insights
RPCG’s interactive structure directly addresses CRCG’s main usability pain points — clear labeling, integrated content, and fewer hidden resources.
Skookum’s focus on transparency and learning fits its co-op model but offers limited transferable patterns.
CRCG’s biggest opportunity: Shift from static → interactive, unclear → intuitive, and fragmented → unified user journeys.
Competitive Evaluation Findings
How CRCG’s task flows compare against competitors.
Task | CRCG | RPCG | Skookum | Key Takeaway |
1. Read about the organization’s history | 3 steps · 2 NN violations | 2 · 1 | 2 · 0 | CRCG’s hierarchy unclear → extra clicks |
2. Find learning resources | 3 steps · 3 NN violations | 2 · 2 | 3 · 2 | CRCG relies on PDFs; lowest accessibility |
3. Register for membership | 3 steps · 1 NN violation | 3 · 1 | 3 · 1 | No on-site signup; all redirect externally |
Quantitative Snapshot
Metric | CRCG | RPCG | Skookum |
Total NN Violations | 6 | 4 | 3 |
Avg. Steps per Task | 3.0 | 2.3 | 2.7 |
Primary Issue Type | Structural / IA | Layout / Visual | Navigation nuance |
⭐ Key Insights
CRCG had the highest interaction cost (more steps per task).
Structural and labeling issues — not aesthetics — caused most usability friction.
Static PDFs and redundant menus inflated effort and broke flow.
🪢 Synthesis
CRCG’s usability gaps are structural and interaction-based, stemming from:
Unclear information hierarchy
Inconsistent labeling
Static, non-interactive content formats
🎯 Priority Actions
Simplify Information Architecture – reduce nesting, add hover/active indicators.
Convert PDFs to Live Web Content – improve accessibility and searchability.
Unify Visual + Content System – consistent spacing, type, and hierarchy.
Reduce Cognitive Load – merge redundant pages (“History” + “25 Years”), streamline navigation.
Implementing these would reduce task steps by ~30% and NN violations by ~45%, achieving parity with peer community websites.
7. Research-Informed Redesign
Overarching Redesign Goals
Simplify IA: Flatten navigation hierarchy and provide hover indicators.
Make Key Resources Accessible: Convert static PDFs into live content to improve accessibility.
Enhance consistency: Apply a unified design system with consistent visual hierarchy.
Reduce cognitive load: Merge related content (e.g., “History” + “25 Years”) and standardize navigation logic.
Information architecture before and after
Refreshed design system with structured typographic system
Concrete Action Items from Research Findings
This list of improvements was made after paring down to the highest priority items that best supported the redesign goals. Original website design is on the left, with mobile and desktop redesigned version on the right:
Introduce clear labelling
The wording “Demo Plots” was kept for simplicity, but setting it on an image tile brings context that it represents a type of garden plot.
Implement a site-wide search bar
Merge Documents and Member Documents
Embed documents into webpages - allows usage of Google Translate browser extension for accessibility for users with English as a foreign language.
Reposition the Contacts List under Contact Us.
Implement a visual interactive calendar for easy date scanning.
Redesign About page that integrates garden intro, goals, garden map.
A visual infographic version of the garden history timeline is in the process of being implemented at the time of writing.
Intended Impact and Takeaways
Intended Impact
Reduce friction: Fewer clicks to find key resources like contacts and documents.
Boost engagement: Newsletter archive + visual calendar create a sense of an active community.
Improve accessibility: Embedded PDFs + live content help digital immigrants and non-native speakers.
Future-ready foundation: Simplified IA supports additional features like live work party signups.
The team plans to adopt Signup Genius to streamline work party registration within the website.
The website is currently being updated in stages based on my recommendations
Takeaways
✅ What Worked Well
Honest feedback from unmoderated testing revealed key pain points.
PDFs and web-embedded content improved accessibility for all users.
Merging documents simplified navigation and reduced confusion.
⚡ Areas to Grow
Follow-up testing needed to confirm improvements in real-world use.
Card layouts and image tiles require testing for clarity and discoverability.
❌ Limitations / Didn’t Work Well
Redesign not fully implemented; some impacts are hypothetical.
No testing on mobile or multi-lingual users yet.
