— Problems
Sitemap and Information Architecture
Both our team and the client recognized a need to improve the organization and structure of information on the website. Because the site houses so many important resources, relevant to many different audiences, it almost serves as a database for these documents. This means easy navigation and a meaningful sitemap is critical to the success of a user visiting the site and looking for something they need.
Both our team and the client recognized a need to improve the organization and structure of information on the website. Because the site houses so many important resources, relevant to many different audiences, it almost serves as a database for these documents. This means easy navigation and a meaningful sitemap is critical to the success of a user visiting the site and looking for something they need.
Storytelling and Credibility
It was expressed often to us by our clients that credibility was something they struggled to build up among various groups. When it was expressed to us that their credibility shot up after the Lahaina wildfires that struck Maui last year, we recognized the correlation of value/need and credibility. Our aim, then, became to highlight both the value of and the credibility of our client to their web visitor audiences.
It was expressed often to us by our clients that credibility was something they struggled to build up among various groups. When it was expressed to us that their credibility shot up after the Lahaina wildfires that struck Maui last year, we recognized the correlation of value/need and credibility. Our aim, then, became to highlight both the value of and the credibility of our client to their web visitor audiences.
Accessibility of Content
Because our clients are experts in their field, their existing site felt a lot like it was made by and for wildfire experts. As a non-expert, it’s easy to be overwhelmed by this. We hoped to improve the accessibility of the content to be digestible for a larger and more diverse audience.
Because our clients are experts in their field, their existing site felt a lot like it was made by and for wildfire experts. As a non-expert, it’s easy to be overwhelmed by this. We hoped to improve the accessibility of the content to be digestible for a larger and more diverse audience.
— Process
Discovery
Discovery
We began our discovery work with simple heuristic evaluations, competitive and comparative analyses, tree tests (examples of results below), and a lot of discussion with our client. At this point, we were doing primarily divergent thinking as we gathered an understanding of the main problems and began seeking inspiration for our next step.
Redesign
For the site redesign itself, we had to select areas to focus on that would bring the most value because of the large amount of content on the site and our limited time. We decided that these areas to focus on would be the sitemap, homepage, and reusable page templates for similar pages on the rest of the site.
Testing
Our team was able to show our newly designed website to real target audiences, such as government officials and members of the community, to gather some initial sentiment. Our primary goal in this user testing was to learn whether our redesign improved the structure and accessibility of the site's content, as well as the organization's credibility. Through some quick and dirty guerrilla testing that tested against our earlier baseline tree-test tasks, we received some signal that the redesign was successful in these goals.
— Reflection & Lessons Learned
As my first time acting as the primary design ops manager on a design team instead of an individual contributor to a project, I learned a lot from working with my team of newer designers, both of whom I was working with for the first time. It presented a fun and interesting challenge for me to figure out the methods that would make us a more efficient team. Below are some of those practices. Overall, these practices seek to embed design best practices into our processes, and empower both the individual and the team to be both a strong individual creator, and a practical collaborator.
Have a development and implementation plan
As a designer, it can be easy to get lost in the weeds and forget that somebody needs to build the product we're designing. But often times, the details of the development play a large role in the design considerations - particularly, any dev limitations. In our case, finding a tool that suited our needs took a considerable amount of time, and thankfully we had the foresight to research and decide on this before going deep into our design. This allowed us to design within the confines of our tool's limitations.
As a designer, it can be easy to get lost in the weeds and forget that somebody needs to build the product we're designing. But often times, the details of the development play a large role in the design considerations - particularly, any dev limitations. In our case, finding a tool that suited our needs took a considerable amount of time, and thankfully we had the foresight to research and decide on this before going deep into our design. This allowed us to design within the confines of our tool's limitations.
Brainstorm individually, then as a team
Being creative in a group setting can actually be a pretty difficult task. A tactic I have found to be rather successful at facilitating divergent thinking and the development of new, creative ideas with teams is to first allow the team to generate ideas individually, then bring it to the group to inspire refinement or new variations.
Being creative in a group setting can actually be a pretty difficult task. A tactic I have found to be rather successful at facilitating divergent thinking and the development of new, creative ideas with teams is to first allow the team to generate ideas individually, then bring it to the group to inspire refinement or new variations.
Facilitate with clear goals in mind
Meetings that don't have direction are one of the hardest things to get through. For newer designers, this is often the case when sharing design work with their teams - there's that little bit of "now what?" in the air. Something that was very beneficial to our team during this project was discussing our goals and desired outcomes early on in each meeting.
Meetings that don't have direction are one of the hardest things to get through. For newer designers, this is often the case when sharing design work with their teams - there's that little bit of "now what?" in the air. Something that was very beneficial to our team during this project was discussing our goals and desired outcomes early on in each meeting.
Create clear responsibilities for team members
No one wants to be the team member that does none of the work, nor the one that takes all of the work from everyone else. A practice that we adopted over time as a team was to list out the action items to be done after each meeting, and assigning each person to various tasks in a way that most reasonably distributes the work.
No one wants to be the team member that does none of the work, nor the one that takes all of the work from everyone else. A practice that we adopted over time as a team was to list out the action items to be done after each meeting, and assigning each person to various tasks in a way that most reasonably distributes the work.
Create a safe space for feedback and open discussion
Lastly and maybe most importantly, it's really important for a design team to develop a level of trust to be able to give each other honest and constructive feedback. To do this, all team members need to be on the same page about both giving and receiving communication with grace and respect.
Lastly and maybe most importantly, it's really important for a design team to develop a level of trust to be able to give each other honest and constructive feedback. To do this, all team members need to be on the same page about both giving and receiving communication with grace and respect.