Proportion Global
✴︎
Proportion Global ✴︎
hcd community platform
UX research ✴︎ product design ✴︎ WordPress developer
Proportion Community is an exclusive digital platform for HCD consultants by Proportion Global Design agency, crafted based on user needs, from problem definition to the final product.
project overview
problem statement
Proportion Global (platform manager) wants to redesign their marketing website and create a job board platform due to the demand for quality Global Sounds HCD experts (supply end-user) from INGOs (demand end-user).
constraints
Time → limited to 6 months
Budget → due to small company size (eenmanzaak)
qualitaitve research
desk research
previous research from the platform manager found that demand end-users were struggling to locate and curate quality supply end-users for their tendering teams.
results: customer journey
qualitative semi-structured interview
9 HCD experts (supply end-users)
1 INGOs(demand end-users).
Interview with all stakeholders: Proportion Global, HCD consultants, and INGO project manager →
From research insights to customer journey, patterns were derived to formulate the following design direction:
By increasing qualified HCD experts, more INGOs will use Proportion Global's services, increasing revenue. Considering this conclusion, the project was reframed:
Build a community platform across 50+ countries and share the database with INGOs → MVP
Digitise the curation process and integrate it into the platform
direction
design
In collaboration with Proportion Global, different techniques were used to create the concept. Brainstorming with HMW questions followed by affinity diagramming and dot voting which later then prioritised using an impact-effort matrix. The concept is as follows:
Left to right — brainstorm, dot-vote, and affinity diagram; features list; impact-effort matrix to prioritize features
🏛️ Proportion Community Platform
A community platform solves both business and user needs:
For Proportion: It acts as a talent pool to source experts for client projects and tenders, more members mean more business opportunities.
For HCD experts: It supports their careers by offering more job opportunities, fostering global peer connections, and serving as a central hub for HCD knowledge.
Key features: Online events, job board page, Q&A forums in groups.
🏢 Proportion Website
The website will contain all information about Proportion Global as a design agency, structured for INGOs interested in collaborating with Proportion and its network.
Increase credibility and visibility as an agency; real address, phone number, and the usage of digital marketing (SEO).
Showcase reasons why INGOs should hire Proportion (case studies & community)
Showcase information about the community and increase lead generation
prototype
curating process
Proportion Global will curate the HCD experts as the platform manager. Those who don't pass the vetting process will be directed to Proportion Academy for a short HCD course to enhance their qualifications.
Proportion Global Website
page designs
Proportion Community Platform
The platform was built using the BuddyBoss WordPress theme. For efficiency reasons, I prototyped only a few of the pages to experiment with the style guide implementation then developed the rest directly using the sitemap as the structure. See all screens in the Drive.
test
Online usability tests of the marketing website with think-aloud protocol via Zoom with 7 participants focusing on:
Concept → do users understand the concept of community platform?
Comprehension → can participants find all the information they are looking for?
Value proposition → do users find value in the community platform? Do they want to join after they read the information?
results
7 out of 7 participants
understood the overall concept of the community platform
4 out of 7 participants
participants feel that some information seems to be misplaced
4 out of 7 participants
participants feel the value proposition should be phrased better
7 out of 7 participants
are excited to join the platform just by reading the community page
final design
Iterations made following the recommendation:
Changed the style tile to the v2 instead of the final → more accessible with thicker lines
Copy changes and how to title the sections
Merged ‘for clients’ and ‘for HCD professionals’ page
Redesigned style tile
Visual elements appeared as development errors rather than decorative ones. The overall color combinations lacked a fun and friendly mood. The changes made to achieve a vibrant, fun, friendly, and professional website are:
Visual design ( removed patterns, changed illustration style)
Branding → added one color for BG and shades, used more blue because it’s soothing and is the most commonly used color for branding.
Mood → still fun and friendly but professional, focus on
UI/UX Refresh
After constant learning and improvement for the past few years, I redesigned this project to accurately reflect my current skills. Some of the changes made:
Restructured site map and information architecture
As Proportion Global's digital identity, the website must emphasize content for visibility and credibility to build trust with clients and HCD professionals. Changes include:
Moved the values from About us → Community landing page — values are more relevant in the community rather than the about page, mission vision ambition are already written there.
Moved the Community page to the bottom of the menu item — focus on the agency instead of the community platform
Refreshed designs
Refreshed Wireframes
learnings & next steps
Measures → need to set up clear measures to evaluate project's state and success.
Next step, message testing → should be done after the usability test to check coherence and comprehension for increased lead generation.
Done differently, create mockup and test platform design → the user testing is only for the marketing website because:
The platform uses a WordPress theme that cannot able to be flexibly changed
After heuristic evaluation of the platform, the design is already simple and easily understandable
Time and resource restrictions
conclusion
According to the concept and product testing, I have fulfilled the project goal following the reframing in the design direction.
✅ Create a community platform and manually offer the community as a database to the INGOs