Enhancing Online Registration for Special Olympics Canada
Special Olympics Canada (SOC) is a national organization that fosters self-esteem and interpersonal skills in individuals with intellectual disabilities through year-round competitions.
I worked with SOC to improve their Online Registration Portal, aiming to simplify the process for the Athlete Registrants and the Admin Staff processing their enrollments.
Application: Web App
Project Duration: 2023
Team: Product Owner, Business Analyst, Registration SMEs, UX/UI Designer (me), Full Stack Developers
Final Deliverables: High Fidelity Designs, User Research, Component Libraries
Objectives for the Registration Portal
Update the online registration process to enhance overall user experience
Optimize and streamline the approval process for administrative staff to improve efficiency
Enhance the registration process to accommodate requirements for all SO Chapters
Project Results
-50%
Loading Time
85%
Positive Feedback
2 Chapters
Influenced to Adopt
My team conducted interviews with 10 users, including both administrative staff and volunteer registrants. The Athlete user process goes through multiple different information sections before the application can be submitted.
Each Special Olympics Canada provincial Chapter used different registration portals and forms. To build a universal online portal, we needed to establish a minimum standard that everyone could agree on. A Minimum Viable Record (MVR) was created by documenting, listing, and comparing the unique needs of each chapter.
Our MVR revealed several outdated registration fields and elements that made the layout feel cluttered and disrupted the user flow. By removing these unnecessary fields and updating the layout for better readability, we can create a more streamlined form that improves both usability and the overall user experience.
"As an admin, I struggled with registering large numbers of participants. It became tedious to open new windows for each registration section for every athlete."
"The admin interface was hard to use - common actions like Approving Enrollments were buried under many levels of menus and flows."
"Participants found the current portal too complex, so they resorted to registering via pen and paper—which ended up being even more taxing for us on the admin staff."
The MVR process allowed us the opportunity to check in with each Chapter and understand their unique needs. This collaborative effort also helped Chapters gain more participation and empowered them in the design process, fostering cooperation and understanding in the future.
After finalizing the MVR, we successfully reduced the number of fields by 40%, allowing for greater flexibility in restructuring the registration form. We organized the remaining fields into distinct sections, enhancing both readability and scannability for users.
It was difficult to change the portal's existing framework, so we worked on creating 'quick wins' and visual updates that could improve the user experience without changing too much code.
As the first UX Designer, I created a culture that prioritized user interviews and feedback in the discovery process. In keeping it a collaborative process, our users felt a sense of empowerment and ownership
I learned to pitch and defend my design decisions to stakeholders, keeping in mind the unique business needs with each provincial chapter