The GO platform belongs to its users, in particular disaster responders across the globe who are members of the Red Cross Red Crescent Movement.
We can gain some insight on their needs and behaviour through site analytics but, in order to listen to a broad range of user experiences, expectations and ideas, it is good to proactively seek feedback. We are committed to user-centred design for the platform and a recent survey of our users has provided us valuable insights we will use for future management of the platform.
A descriptive analysis of the results is presented in the slides below:
In short, the survey demonstrates good progress for the platform and that user expectations are overall being met. Despite this, it was clear that there are also many improvements to be made, particularly around navigation, responsiveness and login issues. We have also gathered a number of useful feature requests that will help to orient the future development priorities for the platform.
Methodology
The process of survey design was initiated in August 2020. Our main motives for surveying users could be broadly categorised as wanting to a) provide evidence for feature development, b) help to prioritise these features, c) find out what users are finding frustrating, d) identify key users of GO features and their roles, and e) start a conversation on the future direction of the platform.
We sought input from the GO team and the SIMS network to find the best questions to solicit this information. We used Miro in the design phase to sketch out the survey motive, logic and question flow.
We used Google Forms for the survey due to its simple interface and some customisable features. After testing the form with a number of volunteers to ensure the logic and flow worked to generate data that fed the intended analysis plan, we were ready to roll.
The format of the GO 2nd birthday event, a number of messages and a banner on the site were used to raise awareness and solicit inputs. 200+ responses was our goal as it represents a statistically significant portion of the user base and so we were glad to surpass that mark.
Thanks to all of you who gave us 5 mins to respond to the survey, it is well appreciated. We will be using this to develop an open workplan to share in early 2021.
