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DEPARTMENT OF LABOR

Mary Keith

Regina Sequeiros

Shannon Wong

User Interface Redesign

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USER INTERFACE ANALYSIS

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PROTO-PERSONA

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USER PATH

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Wireflow

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HEURISTIC EVALUATION

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  • Appearance/Aesthetics: Purpose, design, color, images, universal icons were clear and consistent. Follows heuristics 2, 4, 7, & 8.
  • Content: Links & terminology are clear. Follows heuristics 2 & 6.
  • Efficiency/Functionality: Website load quickly, links work both on site & off site, the back & breadcrumbs help the user. Follows heuristic 1, 3,4, 7, 10,
  • Appearance/aesthetics: There's too much information without clear purpose. Universal search function is apparent.Need to improve on heuristics 2, 3, 4 &10.
  • Content: All headings, except Topics is clear. Can improve on heuristic 6 & 7
  • Navigation: Consistent Navigation, but the breadcrumb are not on each page. The sorting and hierarchy of the information can be improved. Can improve on heuristic 7, 10.
  • Efficiency/Functionality: Lack of warning when exiting the website as the user anticipates to be on the same web page. Can improve on 4, 5, 9.
  • Content: Information, links, and results are overwhelming and can be condensed. There are no alerts for any known errors. Need to improve on heuristics 3 -5, 7 -10.
  • Navigation: Limited buttons & nonexistent return home button. Need to improve on heuristics 3, 4, 7,10.

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HEURISTIC EVALUATION

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USABILITY TESTING

Through a series of 5 user interviews with the goal for users navigate through the website to find where to file for unemployment…

Reference Appendix: Usability Testing Feedback

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We found out that users had a hard time locating the link to find “how to file for unemployment” and the website is congested with forms and confusing information.

“I felt confused why there is more COVID-19 info than unemployment.”

“I didn’t know where to look, so I clicked on ‘Forms’ in nav.”

“I successfully clicked my state’s link and navigated to the NY DOL page.”

“The search bar always takes me to weird links.”

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USER FEEDBACK MATRIX

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ANNOTATED USABILITY AND HEURISTICS

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Annotated Usability & Heuristic Issues

Contact Us

-Contact Us

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Heuristic No.9 Recognize, diagnose and recover from errors: it doesn’t give notice on when you leave the page and why.

Heuristic no.7: Flexibility and efficiency of use, as the information is not clear on how to be used.

Heuristic No. 4: It divides families of information and keeps categories apart.

The content in the drop down menus is not clear on what agency should be contacted. Needs clearer information.

The drop down menu titles are organized hierarchically, this makes titles clear by agency name.

Links that take you to external sites are fill-out forms organized by time.

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Annotated Usability & Heuristic Issues - About Us

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LATCH COMMENTS

USABILITY HEURISTICS

Heuristic no. 10 Help and documentation. A bit more information would be helpful to guide the user on what to expect from each category

Heuristics no.4: the information is organized by families of years and related topics.

Organized by hierarchy although,

some are not related to the same category which seems to be a page dedicated to finances.

Time organization allows user to easily identify budgets and yearly performance.

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Annotated Usability & Heuristic Issues - Homepage

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LATCH COMMENTS

USABILITY HEURISTICS

No. 7: Flexibility and Efficiency of Use. Quick links are below fold, so not readily accessible.

No. 10: Help and Documentation. Twitter is constantly updated, but only shows one post.

No. 4: Consistency and Standards. Homepage sets tone for remaining consistent pages.

The navigation bar is organized by categories and hierarchy, but needs better system for user.

The news section is organized by time and placed above the fold for easy access by users.

The Quick Links would could benefit from being organized alphabetically.

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Annotated Usability & Heuristic Issues - FAQ

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LATCH COMMENTS

USABILITY HEURISTICS

No. 6: Recognition Rather Than Recall. A lot of information for user to recognize anything.

No. 7: Flexibility and Efficiency of Use. If user knows what to look for, the search bar helps sift.

No. 4: Consistency and Standards. Homepage sets tone for remaining consistent pages.

“Forms by Title” is organized alphabetically, but needs a less overwhelmed sight.

The dropdown menus give follow hierarchy and categories and close for less overwhelming views

“Forms by Title” should not automatically open on the “Forms” page and should be at the bottom.

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Annotated Usability & Heuristic Issues - Forms

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Annotated Usability & Heuristic Issues - Forms

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LATCH COMMENTS

USABILITY HEURISTICS

No. 4: Consistency and Standards. There is no navigation bar, so users could be confused.

No. 8: Aesthetic and Minimalist Design. FAQ is content heavy, so needs to be streamlined.

No. 7: Flexibility and Efficiency of Use. Search gives users the freedom to search for q’s

There is hierarchy throughout the page, but eyes go straight for the blue links, nothing else.

The topics are organized alphabetically, which helps users if they know what to look for.

FAQ should categorize with dropdowns for questions, so on single page with no redirection.

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Annotated Usability & Heuristic Issues - News

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Annotated Usability & Heuristic Issues - News

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LATCH COMMENTS

USABILITY HEURISTICS

No. 4: Consistency and Standards. Details not categorize which makes it hard to decipher.

No. 8: Aesthetic and Minimalist Design. Links are not placed effectively.

No. 2. Match between system and the real world. Icons are in locations you can find on other sites.

The location of the links may not be user friendly with those with a disability.

The hierarchy within the header & footer are clear for the user to navigate to other pages

The content should be organized alphabetically or category as there is no hierarchy

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COLOR ACCESSIBILITY

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Color Accessibility - Dark Color Scheme

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Dark Color Scheme - AA Compliant

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Dark Color Scheme - AAA Compliant

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Color Accessibility - Light Color Scheme

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Light Color Scheme - AA Compliant

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Light Color Scheme - AAA Compliant

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FONTS

Arial for Titles

  • Arial has been used by dyslexic and non-dyslexic readers for a long time.
  • The sans serif font has soft curves and open counters, making it easier to read.
  • Arial is evenly spaced and plain.

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Verdana for text

  • Verdana was designed to be readable at a small size.
  • Verdana has a large x-height—this could be why it is so popular amongst dyslexic readers.
  • It includes wide proportions compared to other sans serif fonts and loose tracking, which helps when dyslexic readers need to identify separate letters.

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Navigation- Department of Labor

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Navigation

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Primary Navigation Bar:

1.Topics

2.Agencies

3.About Us

4. News

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NAVIGATION - USABILITY TESTING

Through a series of 4 interviews we discovered few main common problems...

Reference Appendix: Usability Testing Feedback

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Inconsistency between website page layouts

Duplicative Information on the website/mobile site

The user did not know to click on the logo to return home, so used back button repeatedly instead.

Organization of information was overwhelming - content-heavy site

Breadcrumb navigation not consistent

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Card Sorting- Content

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Reorganized- Card Sorting

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Sitemap

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Site Map

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Prototype

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NAVIGATION BAR

Secondary navigation bar

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Navigation- Iteration- Design

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Navigation- Iteration- Design

Logo and Navigation bar:

Considering the accessibility analysis, color and font implemented readability by keeping bar and logo name clean with black hovered titles taking advantage of the white color as the background.

Secondary Navigation bar:

During the Navigation test,people clicked on “topics” as their first reaction, finding the content confusing and overwhelming While card sorting, content organized by “popular links,information for the most common users “Employees” and “Employers”.

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Home Page:

Organized by the “Z” formation highlighting to the users’ eye relevant information found during the Navigation Usability Testing. Common clicks were “Quick Links” and “Topics”.

To create more trust on user and purpose of the page and the Department of Labor, I added a section “About Us- Our Mission” . The color orange implemented on this section as part of the logo branding studied during the color accessibility test, this color grabs attention, it’s warmth and welcoming.

Original Page

VS

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Footer:

Logo strategically relocated to reduce jamming of relevant information.

The links were sorted by DOL’s organizations leaving social media communication links on the right bottom. New arrow up helps users scroll up at pages with long content.

Original Page

DOL’s Team

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Desktop vs Mobile

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Desktop Navigation Elements

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Goals:

  • Increase readability by using high contrast with white. background.
  • Stay true to branding colors.
  • Group information.
  • Communicate action and status.

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Mobile

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Goals:

  • Information grouped strategically so user doesn’t feel overwhelmed.
  • Size links accessible to all users.
  • Contrast to communicate system status.
  • Branding.

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Responsive Design

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Prototype Test- Iteration

By testing the prototype from HW 9 the following sections needed iteration:

  1. Footer: Adding the email contact bar to keep up to date with news. Throughout the page it seems that the DOL is making an effort for this action, but doesn’t have a dedicated space for it.
  2. Image Carousel: Space dedicated to show relevant news and articles. Original spacing was letting behind other links more relevant to users.

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Interaction Design

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Testing and Iteration

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On week 11-12 I continued to iterate on major blockers for our testers. The second reason for iteration was to refine the UI aspects to make them more appealing and more accessible.

Testing consisted on:

Clicking states and analyzing information on Navigation bar, Footer and Home Page to find concise content and intend within the links.

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Usability Testing Feedback

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Navigation Bar:

  1. There were some inconsistencies in the content action buttons and the hover state was not readable.

Solution:

Made the hover state text darker.

  • It wasn’t clear whether the content boxes were drop down

menus or pop-up menus.

Solution:

Made the pop-up menus centered in the page. A close “x” is placed in the corner. The boxes surround the content without wasting white space.

Search Bar:

  1. Search bar needed more space to type.

Solution:

Made a search bar that expands while clicking

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Usability Testing Feedback

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Home Page Body Content:

  • The Mission statement was confusing.

Solution:

Erased the bigger title and left only subtitle of

“Mission Statement”.

2. Quick links seems like a UX/UI fault and not best practices. This this is complicated aspect without knowing all the AI of the site and certain information the DOL possibly only has access to determine the most popular links.

Solution: After reading best practices in the Norman Group website, a quick solution is to change title to “popular links”, “most visited” “frequently clicked”. Based on this being a government site I chose “Frequently Accessed”

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Usability Testing Feedback

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Footer:

  • The location of the footer, although I got inspired on other designs.

Solution:

Included logo into the footer and deleted the hover states repeated on the navigation bar.

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Iterated Desktop Clickable Prototype

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Iterated Mobile Clickable Prototype

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Visual Design

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Dark Mode Iterations

Logo Placement

Twitter Dark mode

Frequently used same size text

Mission Statement

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Takeaways

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Redesigning the Department of Labor was a true challenge. This page contains a vast amount of information. We based our design primarily on testing the original site and analyzing the tendencies all the interviewers had. It would be helpful if we had time to collaborate with the DOL team to understand the Information Architecture

These complex projects require more time to test more and iterate (logo, secondary pages, dark mode button, translate,voice). The purpose of the UX/UI designer in projects with large institutions is to facilitate access to valuable information to the user, making their lives easier, such as filing for unemployment that can benefit the user and their family.

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Appendix HM 9

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Navigation Usability Matrix

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Appendix Homework 8

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