Government Website Redesign

Project Overview

Redesign the Department of the Interior's website to make it easier for people to search for natural and cultural information and sign up for volunteer opportunities.

Role & Responsibilities

UX/UI designer redesigning the website from conception to delivery

Team

Bingbing Yang

Taya Tepudom (Partner of phases empathize, define and ideate)

Tools

Figma, Google Drive, Invision, Zoom

Project Duration

Part-time 5 weeks assignment

Problem Statement

Christen, a 29 year old grad student, has recently become a full-time traveler and wants to know more about the environment. After visiting a few national parks, she realized how passionate she is about nature and wants to contribute to protect it.

Goals

Improve overall site navigation and offer users with the information they need.

User Centered Design Process

Empathize Define Ideate Prototype Test

Empathize / Research

To guide our design concept, We began our research by combining heuristic evaluation, first round usability testing, and card sorting.

Heuristic Evaluation

In the research process, We discovered the site's main issue through heuristic evaluation is that it lacks a consistent navigation structure, and the content on the homepage is disorganized

Homepage Redline Annotation

News Page Redline Annotation

Volunteer Page Redline Annotation

First Round Usability Test Task Flow

We created scenarios for usability testing to evaluate if users could complete the tasks on the original site successfully.

Scenario 1

Users are looking for a news article from October 2021 because they're curious about seasonal events during that time period.

Scenario 2

Users want to know what the government is doing about future energy sources.

Scenario 3

Users desire to learn more about environmental protection by volunteering with the government.

Carding Sorting

Card sorting made it easier for us to connect with users and gave us guidance on how to categorize the content to make it more user-friendly.

User Research Pain Points

Home Button

The majority of users are unable to return to the homepage, particularly from the newsroom page, due to the fact that that page has a different navigation bar and there is no obvious method to return to the homepage.

FIlter

Users found it difficult to search news articles from a given time period because the page's filter has few options and the pagination is not obvious.

Navigation

Finding specific information about the Department of the Interior takes time if the user is unfamiliar with the department's operations.

Category Name

Users find it difficult to obtain volunteer information, and they believe "Join" is not as clear as possible.

Define

Persona

We created a user persona based on the research findings to better understand the needs and motivations of users.

Journey Map

To visually represent the website's user flow. We developed the user journey map.

Ideate

Affinity Map

During the affinity mapping process, we discovered that the most common issue customers have with the website's navigation. We then came to the conclusion that the website should have an easy-to-use navigation system that allows users to quickly access information and sign up for volunteer opportunities..

Prioritization Matrix

We prioritized the research data in order to gain insight into how we could make the website more user-friendly.

Click here to view the prioritization matrix

Design & Prototype ( Individual Work)

From there, we work on our own to see what different designs we can come up with.

Redesigned Site Map (Click here to view)

Using the data from the first round usability test and card sorting, I started by redesigning the sitemap to guide my concept.
For the sections where users are confused. I either altered the name or moved it to the bottom of the page. For example, I changed the term "join" to "participate". I put Resources A-Z in the footer of the website.

Paper Wireframing

I drew out sketches of the website on paper first.
For the better result, I drew four sketches for each screen and then choose the parts that will be used in the digital wireframes from these sketches.

Click here to view the sketches

DIgital Wireframing

To test the redesigned website, I built digital wireframes based on my sketches.

Homepage

News Page

Volunteer Page

Then, in order to evaluate the usability of the redesigned webpages, I created an interactive Hi-Fi prototype of the screen.

Click here to view the Hi-Fi prototype

Test

To improve the design and make it more user-friendly. I completed a second round of usability testing and sought feedback from my peers and instructor.The following were the key findings uncovered by the usability study:

Refining The Design

The usability studies provided me with a few actionable insights.:

Making the logo look more like a home button
Using the same color and font for the button
Rename certain categories to make navigation easier for users

Homepage

Major changes:

Reorganized the content into the past and the future

Before Usability Study

After Usability Study

News Page

Major changes:

Added more content
Added different sections

Before Usability Study

After Usability Study

Volunteer Page

Major changes:

Updated layout

Before Usability Study

After Usability Study

Takeaways

What I've Learned

Always make sure the prototype functions properly before sending it to users.
Stick to the site's objective and the fundamental problem I'm attempting to solve when addressing to feedback.

Future Opportunities

Redesign additional pages as well as review the project to iterate it.

Thank You!

Your Feedback is Welcome

Let’s Connect

EmaiL: bingbingy955@gmail.com

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/bingbing-yang-28a618232

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