The Innocence Project

“The Coffin case stands for the proposition that at the request of a defendant, a court must not only instruct on the prosecution’s burden of proof—that a defendant cannot be convicted unless the government has proven his guilt beyond a reasonable doubt—but also must instruct on the presumption of innocence—by informing the jury that a defendant is presumed innocent. The Court stated,

The principle that there is a presumption of innocence in favor of the accused is the undoubted law, axiomatic and elementary, and its enforcement lies at the foundation of the administration of our criminal law.”

— Jeralyn. (2003, January 12). The History of the Presumption of Innocence. The History of the Presumption of Innocence - TalkLeft: The Politics Of Crime. http://www.talkleft.com/story/2003/01/12/153/23800/lawrelated/The-History-of-the-Presumption-of-Innocence

Read the Report

About the Project

The Innocence Project, founded in 1992 by Peter Neufeld and Barry Scheck at Cardozo School of Law, exonerates the wrongly convicted through DNA testing and reforms the criminal justice system to prevent future injustice [1}. This evaluation report describes the results of an unmoderated remote user test of the The Innocence Project website conducted by an interdisciplinary team of five UX Consultants.

Team & Roles

The consultants on the team included three information experience designers, one library and information science specialist, and one data analytics and visualization specialist (me). Together, we conducted a preliminary assessment of the website, developed a potential donor profile and experience scenario, and designed three tasks to test using a third-party online user testing service, UserTesting. While my primary role in this project was managing, analyzing, and visualizing the data we received from the user tests, I was also responsible for the design and layout of the final report. I wanted the report to reflect the history and spirit of the work of the Innocence Project, so I researched the history of the project and highlighted key figures and their stories in the visuals and graphics throughout the report.

Overall Process

Over the course of one week, our team of five experts used a third-party online user testing service to conduct sixteen (16) unmoderated remote user tests of the Innocence Project website. The test users were instructed to approach the site as potential donors and were asked to carry out three tasks: support an exoneree, learn how to host a local fundraising event, and find the address to mail in their donation. The test user videos were analyzed by the team and used to determine three key issues potential donors encounter when navigating the website.

Tested User Demographics

Findings

On the basis of our team’s evaluation of the site and the user tests, we determined that a total of four significant problems exist for potential donors when accessing the Donate and Get Involved pages on both mobile and desktop browsers. These include:

Donation Page (on both desktop and mobile browsers):

The navigation bar/hamburger present throughout the site is absent on this page.
The donation pages of the Innocence Project and Support an Exoneree are similar.
The question section (FAQ) does not exist on the mobile version of the page, making it difficult for users to immediately address issues they may have.

Get Involved (on both desktop and mobile browsers):

The similarity between the Get Involved and Ways to Give pages caused users to be confused when they could not find the donation information they were looking for.

Identified Issues on Pages

Figure 1. The Innocence Project Donate page on a desktop browser.

Box A represents the location of the missing navigation bar which is present throughout the Innocence Project website. In Box B, we suggest that the Support Exonerees be added as an option to the ‘Select an amount’ section. An additional issue inhibiting ease of use on the Donate page for potential donors is that the Questions (FAQ) section, Box C, is not present on mobile browsers.

Figure 2. The Innocence Project Support Exonerees After Release page on a web browser

This page looks nearly identical to the Donate page on both the desktop and mobile versions. To simplify matters, we suggest that Support Exonerees be added as an option to the ‘Select an amount’ section of the Donation page (Figure 1. Box B)

Figure 3. The Innocence Project Donate page on a mobile browser

Both our team and the test users assumed that the FAQ section would be contained in the hamburger drop down menu; however, this was not the case. Box D illustrates that this menu only provides login and sharing functions.

Figure 4. The Innocence Project Ways to Give page on a desktop browser

While completing Task 1, our team observed that instead of accessing the Ways to Give page to Support an Exoneree After Release (Figure 4), users would navigate to the Get Involved page (Figure 5) because it was more visibly present and its title suggestive of the desired action for this task. Though these two pages are similar and contain overlapping functions (blue boxes highlighted in Figures 4 & 5), the Ways to Give page contains specific information on how to Support an Exoneree After Release, while the Get Involved page does not.

Figure 5. The Innocence Project Get Involved page on a desktop browser

Our Recommendations

We believe that the simplest and most effective way to address the issues on both the Donate and Get Involved pages is down to a matter of condensing information through means of navigation and page layout. On the Donate page, we suggest:

The addition of the familiar navigation bar/hamburger used throughout the site, as it will provide the user with a familiar interface.
Add a feature that allows Support Exonerees to be added as an option to the ‘Select an amount’ section.
Add a Question (FAQ) section in the hamburger drop down menu on the mobile broswer.

On the Get Involved page, we propose that as there are share/overlapping functions on this and the Ways to Give page, that these two pages should be combined. By combining these two pages, we believe the user will feel less confused during the donation process.

Recommendations Highlighted in Yellow Dots

Figure 6. Recommendation for the Innocence Project Donation page on a desktop browser.

R1. Keep the navigation bar consistent and on top of the donate section page to prevent user confusion.

R2. Add a tab feature to allow users to determine where they would like their donation allocated.

R3. The new FAQ feature will appear as a pop-up, which the user can access by clicking the question mark icon to open and close this panel.

Figure 7. Recommendation for the Innocence Project Donate page with FAQ section extended on a desktop browser

R4. The pop-up panel of frequently asked questions will assist in eliminating users confusion during the donation process. This feature improves user efficiency and reduces cognitive load.

Figure 8. Recommendation for the Innocence Get Involved page on a desktop browser

R5. By combining the contents of the Ways to Give and Get Involved pages into one page, the user will be not be confused about their options. The new layout applies a new hierarchy by revising the sequence of features. According to the user test results, this new layout can help users find intended information accurately and donate to specific projects.

Figure 9a. Recommendation for the Innocence Donate page on a mobile browser

R6. There are three main changes are made on the mobile interface, as showed in figure 9v. First, it was changed corresponding following the desktop version, adding the option of donation to let users know that they can donate for specific projects. FAQs buttons were added on the mobile version, users can click to view frequent questions, such as donation mail address.

For the design of the navigation, the location and logic of the Burger Menu on the donation page better be the same with the Burger Menu on the homepage, but only add login and forwarding functions. This can reduce user confusion and mistakes.

Figure 9b. Recommendation for the Innocence Donate page on a mobile browser

R7. The FAQ feature has the same visual style as the desktop version. Visual consisitency improves user experience.

About. (2021). Innocence Project. https://innocenceproject.org/about/