MS Society UK

User-centred thinking to tackle complex digital challenges

Helping the MS Society find the right solution through smarter research and prototyping.

UX research

Innovation

MS Society search

The challenge

Our brief was to work with the team to define what their search solution would be and ensure that it would work well for users. Whilst that may sound straightforward, it is challenging to go from ‘this could be better’ to ‘this is the optimal solution to this complex challenge’. The MS Society delivers digital to a very high standard, with accessibility and co-creation at the centre of their work.

Our approach

We agreed a very user-centred approach with the MS Society, using innovative user research testing to help us identify the right paths early on and avoid us having to do multiple rounds of expensive prototype testing.

Market research

We wanted to identify organisations in the market who were using search to solve similar challenges to those we knew existed at the MS Society. This would underpin an innovative approach to user testing in the next step. We undertook a rapid review of the market aiming to identify what we considered to be ‘best in class’ solutions to common problems.

Usability testing

We user tested those solutions on a small group of users, to enable us to identify which appeared to most effectively solve the challenges we were looking at. This was a rapid and cost-efficient way to narrow down to optimal solutions for the search implementation.

Requirements gathering

We worked with the key stakeholders at the MS Society to gather the initial ‘high-level’ requirements. We ran a series of structured interviews and workshops to identify what was most important to the organisation and prioritise features and functionality.

Prototyping

Using the output of the usability testing combined with the requirements gathering, we developed a set of wireframes for the future solution. We worked closely with the MS Society’s technical consultant to ensure the solutions suggested could be cost-effectively implemented. We then tested the prototype on six users to validate if the solution met their requirements.

The results

With a validated solution in place, we supported the MS Society as they moved into delivery and build. We worked alongside their in-house team, external designers and their development agency to help bring the new experience to life. The MS Society team worked tirelessly to deliver a solution that met the needs of their audiences and aligned with wider digital goals. It was a privilege to support them on a project from initial discovery through to live delivery. The new search functionality and new location search are now both live on the site. The team will continue to refine and optimise the experience as part of their commitment to ongoing improvement.

What the client said

“The team understood from the outset that search isn’t a nice-to-have for our audiences. They helped us get to a solution that’s accessible, coherent and genuinely useful.”

Chris Parker, Director of Engagement, MS Society

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