Project Background
The Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection needed a strategic review of the Welfare.ie website. Welfare.ie is a website that hasn't been upgraded in over a decade and is the website the department uses to provide information to the public on social protection. The target audience the department wanted to conduct research with were Stakeholders. Welfare.ie supports a wide range of Stakeholders, as well as the general public. A review was needed to uncover the current and future needs for all visitor types. iReach partnered with Clickworks, a digital marketing agency offering a unique blend of leading agencies across digital marketing strategic thinking and best in class research methodologies and insights.
Methodology
iReach ran integrated hybrid quantitative and qualitative research to gain a deep insight into the website user needs. This hybrid method of research allowed for us to reach both stakeholders and the general public through different touchpoints. The quantitative usability testing research was done using site intercept technology. This was located on the website and reached all stakeholders ( customers, claimants and agency members ) to obtain live feedback on experiences and needs. Interactive focus groups were run with different stakeholder groups and user cohorts. In-Depth Interviews were held with various stakeholders in order to gain a deeper insight of those who use the website on a frequent basis but may not have taken part in our online survey.
Insights
The insights gathered from both research methods were distilled down to produce meaningful and actionable insights to feed into the current and future Welfare.ie website and digital strategy. Key Insights were found for website usage, website functionality, website satisfaction and specialised functions. Further improvements and recommendations were made for navigation, layout and design, multimedia content, and also overall recommendations.