Taíno World Project – Phase 2-3
Project Overview
Project: Taíno World
Role: UXR Apprentice
Phase: 2 – Building an Immersive
Website for Future Conferences
Duration: 8 Weeks
Objective: To design a user-centered, immersive digital experience that supports Taíno World’s mission to celebrate and preserve Taíno heritage. This phase aimed to establish a virtual conference platform for Taíno descendants and culture enthusiasts, enabling access to resources, events, and cultural content.
Scope of Work
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Conduct qualitative research and data analysis on user needs.
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Create detailed personas, empathy maps, and user journey maps.
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Develop usability testing scripts and questions.
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Present findings to cross-functional teams and clients to align on user needs and priorities.
Client Needs
The client required a culturally authentic, accessible, and immersive platform that:
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Engages Taíno descendants and enthusiasts.
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Provides bilingual support (English and Spanish).
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Offers virtual conference capabilities, including live streaming, recorded sessions, and interactive features.
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Serves as a comprehensive resource hub for Taíno culture, history, and events.
Problem
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Users faced several challenges when engaging with Taíno cultural content online, including:
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Limited Reliable Information: Users reported difficulty finding accurate, up-to-date content on Taíno culture.
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Language Barriers: With a diverse linguistic audience, many users felt restricted in accessing bilingual resources.
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Event Accessibility: Limited virtual event options and networking opportunities left users feeling disconnected from the community.
UX Research Process
Qualitative Analysis
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Phase 2: We conducted in-depth interviews with Taíno descendants and culture enthusiasts to gather rich qualitative insights. The interview data was coded and tagged in Dovetail, allowing us to identify recurring themes, user motivations, and key pain points.
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Phase 3: Building on these findings, we launched our outreach efforts through a mixed-method approach, starting with a screener survey. After receiving client approval for the ad and screener, we officially kicked off recruitment via the client’s newsletter and social media platforms.
Data Analysis
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Used Dovetail tagging to categorize and synthesize data, identifying three core pain points:
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Accessibility of reliable information.
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Need for bilingual support.
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Limited engagement in cultural events and networking.
Persona Development
Created two primary personas: Taíno Descendant and Culture Enthusiast, each representing unique user journeys and needs
Empathy Mapping
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Developed empathy maps for each persona, capturing their emotions, thoughts, and motivations to guide the platform’s design and content strategy
Accessibility
Accessibility
In order to understand the accessibility needs of our target users, we collected data for:
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users with a disability : 18%
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users with no disability : 82%
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users who prefer not to disclose their disability : 18%
Respondents with disabilities.
82% (N=18) of our respondents reported having no disability.
18% (N=4) reported having a disability, and 18% of the respondents preferred not to disclose their disability status.
Type of Disability
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To gain a deeper understanding of their accessibility needs,
we collected data on users with:
Cognitive disability : 14%
Mobility-related disability : 14%
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Type of disability: 14% (N=3) of our respondents reported having cognitive disability, and the other 14% (N=3) reported having mobility-related disability, while the remaining 71% of the respondents reported having no disability.
Accommodations for Accessibility
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Our respondents suggested various accommodations that might be useful to them in a conference setting.
One participant suggested “Easy access to the activities and sufficient seating", for in-person conferences’’.
Recommendations:
While only a few respondents stated they had a disability that required accommodations, the need for accessibility features was noted by respondents of all abilities. We recommend incorporating common accessibility features to enhance the experience of all users.
Accommodations for online conferences. Values indicate number of responses.
Usability Testing Preparation
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Designed usability testing scripts and questions to gather feedback on the initial wireframes, focusing on accessibility, user experience, and content relevance
Presentations
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Presented research findings, personas, and journey maps to the cross-functional team and clients, aligning stakeholders on key user insights and informing the next design steps.
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In Phase 3 - Conducted internal pilot tests to troubleshoot issues.
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UXR team did an iterative testing with UXW and UXD teams to refine the test setup.
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Addressed feedback and preparing for 6 scheduled participant testing.
Outcome of Phase 2-3
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Based on our research and data analysis, the team identified three key pain points that informed the design. The design team created wireframes focusing on:
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Easy navigation with bilingual content support.
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Virtual event options with interactive and accessible features.
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A comprehensive Taíno resource hub.
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The wireframes were approved by the client, marking a successful transition to Phase 3, where usability testing will refine the design based on user and client feedback.
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This case study highlights a user-centered approach, showcasing how qualitative research, persona development, and data-driven insights can shape an accessible, engaging digital platform for cultural immersion and community building.
