Design consulting through UX research for Colorado non-profit STEMblazers
STEMblazers is a Colorado non-profit with a goal of reaching one million girls with STEM programs. Our team of five M.S. Creative Technology & Design students studied how students, parents, teachers, volunteers and donors experience the STEMblazers website, and where it gets in the way of them taking action.
Method
- Remote interviews (30 minutes, semi-guided) with 5 STEM-interested students, each exploring the site, finding out how to get involved, and registering for a school program
- Comparison with similar non-profits such as Girls Who Code
- Website audit of the full site
Key findings
- What worked: a clear mission statement, a strong visual identity, statistics that quantified the problem, and relatable student testimonial videos.
- Where users struggled: some users couldn’t tell from the home page what STEMblazers actually provides. Volunteer information was hidden behind Google Drive links. Students hesitated to “contact us” when their school wasn’t listed. The chapter registration flow was inconsistent and, in one case, broken.
Recommendations
State plainly on the home page what students and schools get. Move information out of PDFs and Drive onto the site itself. Involve teachers in new-school registration. Audit every registration form. Standardize the chapter sign-up process, and keep sign-up separate from payment.