U.S. Department of the Interior

Responsible for managing and conserving the nation's natural resources and cultural heritage. They oversee the management of public lands, including national parks, wildlife refuges, and federal territories. Additionally, the department plays a vital role in promoting responsible energy development, protecting endangered species, and fostering tribal relations.

Challenge

The U.S. Department of the Interior's website is a crucial platform for sharing information and policies related to the nation's natural and cultural heritage. However, some users may find it less user-friendly due to factors like complex navigation, overwhelming content organization, outdated design, and limited accessibility features. These challenges make it difficult for users to locate and understand information, hampering their experience and potentially reducing public engagement.

Role

UX Researcher & UI Designer

Tools Used

Figma

Goal

High-fidelity desktop and mobile prototypes for the Department of the Interiors home page, navigation and site map.

Timeline

3 Weeks

Brief

Elevate the Department of Interior’s website to make it more accessible resource.

Discovery

Initial usability tests shed light on what users thoughts and feeling were towards the website. After gathering this data. Three site objectives were made in effort to make the site navigation user friendly.

Objective 1

Objective: Improve website navigation and content organization through research-driven analysis, user feedback, usability testing, and data analytics to optimize the U.S. Department of the Interior's website architecture and enhance visitors' ability to find desired information.

Objective 2

Conduct research on design trends, user preferences, and best practices to modernize the U.S. Department of the Interior's website design, including color schemes, typography, imagery, and layout. Enhance the visual aesthetics and user-friendliness of the interface to increase overall appeal and engagement.

Objective 3

To improve accessibility features and compliance with web accessibility standards: This objective focuses on researching and implementing accessibility improvements for the U.S. Department of the Interior's website to ensure it is accessible to users with disabilities.

Insight Statements

During initial research interviews, it was discovered that users struggled with the informational hierarchy and were having trouble finding what they were looking for.

Therefore, we believe that users want to feel more confident when using the Department of the Interiors website when researching things related to conservation, National parks, Native American relations and much more

We might do this by providing a website with organized information hierarchy with a user interface that is friendly to any user. Doing this will allow the user to trust the information posted on the site and allow them to search/navigate the site without frustration.

Site Mapping

Card Sorting

Since the DOI website is used as a hub for numerous additional government sites. the current organization makes it difficult to locate resources a visitor may be looking for. To better structure how Information was organized on the website, I had users sort cards to what they thought would make the most sense.

Low-Fi Prototype

To make this site accessible for all users, a human-centered design solution was implemented to make the site easier to navigate. Site visitors generally are looking for something specific. User testing resulted in having the search bar and user friendly navigation throughout the wireframe.