This group project was to redesign a government agency website. Being students at the time, our team chose the Department of Education. Two areas piqued our interest. First, the Educational statistics area had a lot of information that could be used by educators to make informed decisions about their students. We visualized this data to make it more accessible. Secondly, the site homepage was crowded and competed for attention against itself. We simplified the layout.
Information overload
The problem: The Department of Education website is outdated. Like a page from "Where is Waldo" the user's eye doesn't know where to rest. The layout does not have a focus. Instead, It shows lots of information at once. These crowded elements are also the same size, indicating they are of importance.
Simplicity
The solution: Create a clean layout that lets visitors understand each page. Remove any unrelated links from Put related information in a group on the side of a page for quick navigation.
Mobile Issues
The first problem with the original site is that many pages are not mobile-friendly. The grants page, for instance, cuts off payout details and the apply button. Adapting the site for mobile could help students on the go.
Dense statistics
The National Center for Educational Statistics is part of the department of education. It researches student outcomes and has unearthed patterns just waiting to be discovered. Unfortunately, the information is currently present in a dull manner. Perhaps schools and individuals would better understand research insights if they where visualized.
Clear data
We redesigned the statistics portion of Ed.gov to target teachers and students with little time. We believe that information presented clearly will have a wider impact than information that requires study to understand.
Focused pages
Our redesign was aimed at clear communication. To reduce cognitive load, we removed an extra navigation menu that was on the right side. Left of the main content, we placed a new panel with relevant documents.
Results
We conducted user tests to measure the time it took participants to find common topics. When asked testers to sign up for a student loan, the participant testing the redesigned site found the correct page two seconds slower compared with the original design. Getting information on loan forgiveness using the redesign was five seconds faster compared to the original.
Desktop prototype
Use the desktop InVision prototype with improved articles and navigation here.
Use Desktop prototype
