Supporting Trust with a new design for the Massachusetts Law Reform Institute

Powering Design With User Feedback

MLH helps Massachusetts residents find information to solve common legal issues, like securing public benefits or fighting an eviction. Every aspect of the site needed to be grounded in the audiences’ needs, therefore Oomph interviewed real people during the discovery and design phases who fit MLH’s primary and secondary audience profiles.

By performing a thorough discovery process — including working group interviews, visitor interviews, cohort site analysis, and wireframe and prototype testing — Oomph was able to create a successful site design dedicated to the needs of visitors.

Helping the Audience by Understanding Them

MLH shares insights on heavy topics ranging from housing and homelessness to money, debt, and immigration. The site contains sensitive information that could change their visitors’ lives. Oomph’s main goal was to step into the shoes of their user groups to better understand their needs when they seek legal information.

The main audience of MLH is Massachusetts residents who are primarily low-income and may not speak English as a first language. They use the site to become informed about legal issues they’re facing quickly and efficiently. As one visitor stated:

I'm coming here because I have a problem. I want to know, where’s the search? What can I do here? What can I not do? Don’t waste my time making me read [fluff]…
User interview

To meet this need, the MLH team provides information in plain English at a fourth to sixth-grade reading level instead of complicated lawyer jargon, which makes it accessible to a wider group of people. Additionally, many resources have been professionally translated into other languages, such as Spanish.

The secondary audience that visits the site is those who help the primary audience, such as social service providers, legal aid lawyers, and legal librarians. Oomph had to walk a fine line by getting feedback from the secondary audience to help inform information about the primary audience; however, our main goal was to ensure that low-income and non-English-speaking people could find the answers they needed.

Gaining the Audience’s Trust with Thoughtful Design Details

We learned that many visitors found the MLH website by searching Google with their questions. Many primary audience members would visit the site on their mobile phones, perhaps even listening to its content with their text-to-speech tool. This increased the importance of a mobile-first design so the pages loaded quickly, the information was clear, and the experience made sense for mobile browsing.

A Modernized Design

The site’s look was outdated, making some visitors feel that it either lacked credibility or didn’t contain the latest legal rules and laws (even though it’s been actively maintained and added to for the past 15+ years!). The final designs had to walk a fine line between being authoritative and trustworthy but comforting. We retained the blue color palette but created  softer tones to create a calming aesthetic.

Our design did not rely on photography often, but when we did, photos had to represent the diverse groups MLH serves. Icons became a tool to guide the visitor through different topics as they don’t require translation.

MLH has also accumulated a lot of content over the years. To help organize its search and topic organization feature, we incorporated content filters according to the information type: articles, how-tos, e-books, and videos. Each category has its own icon, and each icon is represented by a color. This helps unify the search based on the type of content the visitor is seeking.

Supporting the Content With Tools

MLH had several existing tools to assist in digesting content and we validated their need and upgraded them. For example, on content pages, there are options to print, share, listen to the content, and even switch the language as the visitor lands on the page.

Within the main navigation menu, the design included a “Quick Exit” button. This supports visitors who need to abandon the page when, for example, a domestic violence survivor’s abuser re-entered the room.

Proactive vs. Reactive Enhancements

Analytics and user interview results showed that most visitors start their journey on either the homepage or pages that are three or more levels down the navigation. Many also reach the site via a specific Google search. While it is likely they found what they needed, they may not be aware of other information that can help them. To mitigate the risk of bouncing away from the website, we created a “Viewers also reviewed…” component on answer pages that showcased related content more naturally.