The BC Used Oil Management Association (BCUOMA) is a provincial not-for-profit group whose primary objective is to collect and recycle used lubricating oil, oil filters, oil containers, used antifreeze and antifreeze containers. The BCUOMA program is responsible for collecting approximately 50 million litres of oil and 3 million litres of antifreeze annually. 

In collaboration with Here Be Monsters (our favourite team of design professionals), Fuse was tasked with revamping the user experience, and optimizing the administrative workflow in WordPress. 

Information Architecture & UX

Before anything could be produced, we first embarked on a discovery process which consisted of a site audit, user discovery, and technical research. This discovery allowed us to become familiar with the content and user types which resulted in a sitemap and navigation hierarchy that would allow BCUOMA to effectively target two distinct user types.

As the world continues to shift away from their traditional sit-down-at-a-keyboard computer experiences, the outgoing BCUOMA website was not geared for mobile and tablet use. A responsive website was a clear starting point, and priority was placed on allowing the general public to quickly find the closest-to-them location to recycle their used automotive fluids. Interactive wireframes were produced for key pages and tested/iterated on with the help of InVision.

In addition to enhancing the website and experience for the general public, an equally important part of this rebuild was to streamline the way that return facilities were maintained on the website. BCUOMA uses Pictus, which is a third-party application to maintain an up-to-date database of return collection facilities. A custom solution was built to allow the data on the website to be in constant sync with the data housed on Pictus.

Once the three teams were satisfied with the architecture, the design portion commenced with Here Be Monsters.

Development

To achieve the business goals and execute on the IA & Designs, Fuse leaned on the simplicity and familiarity of WordPress. The Timber theme provided a base for the custom interface and integration with the Gutenberg editor. 

A custom plugin was created to sync the data on the website with the managed data on Pictus. The plugin is set up to automatically sync the data on a set interval, while also providing a method to manually initiate the sync.

Launched in late 2020, Fuse continues to support the enhancement of the BCUOMA website as real-world usage is providing additional data to optimize the site and content for users.