Virginia.gov
State government on the web is often difficult to navigate, unfriendly, and an all-together unpleasant user experience. I set out to create an innovative design and experience for the Virginia.gov web ecosystem that addressed these problems and elevated the website to best in class.
Focusing on the User
Through user research done alongside a dedicated User Experience designer, the issues of discoverability and value within the State's web experience became apparent. Being the official state website, Virginia.gov serves millions of users all with different needs and unique problems, making it difficult to anticipate any single use-case. Focus groups and user surveys made it clear that users were having trouble finding specific government services they were looking for, either because they didn't know the exact name or because they didn't know where to look.
A service based approach
A focus on service was adopted early on in the design process. I wanted to highlight the importance of how the state's government can help you and created the website as an extension of that ideal. More than 300 services were added by working with over 100 agencies that weren't previously available. Service content was audited for ease of comprehension and grouped into categories determined by numerous methods, including focus groups and card sorting.
Navigation between service categories was improved by creating numerous pathways to pages using a branching structure that eased user flow.
Data driven
In order to help increase discoverability, I developed and implemented a new front-end search service, decreasing the time it took users to find specific services or agency pages.
An increased focus on linking users to external agency services allowed me to implement more analytics tools for a more data-driven approach to future improvement. Popular services are tracked and conversion rates between different categories are compared. I developed a custom dashboard using Google Analytics and other APIs to analyze and use this information for content updates and future site improvements.
Other Areas of Focus
I created a database to catalogue over 300 local government websites across the state. Multiple geolocation and public government data APIs were used to create a tool that allows for the discovery of local government information by address.
A unifying brand and look was created via the design of the cardinal logo and is carried across all Virginia state websites. This unifying look and feel is part of a larger design system direction being driven by the development of a Virginia Design System.
Results
The new website was designed and developed with performance, usability and accessibility at the forefront. System fonts, a custom svg icon implementation, and up-to-date image loading techniques cut page load times in half of previous iterations. The new website scored perfect 100's in Google's Lighthouse Audit for performance, accessilibity, best practices, and SEO. Bounce rate decreased by as much as 10% and a whole host of new metric tracking allows for analyzing data in ways never before possible.
The new design and systems I created encourage expansion and allow for the web experience to grow with the digital direction of Virginia as a whole. Templates for other state agencies are being developed based on the design systems created here. My focus, and biggest accomplishment, on this project was the building of a solid foundation for the future.
