QuantGov
User research and product design
Challenge
Rebrand and redesign the QuantGov product. The new design aims to showcase the product and provide users with a better experience, including building a more intuitive information architecture and developing a coherent visual language. Challenges include changing team structures, product changes, limited resources, and masking two separate backends.
What we found:
Unclear information archtechture.
Cluttered visual design.
Low discoverability.
Details
My Focus Areas
UX research, usability testing, visual design, branding, prototyping, and QA.
Tools Used
Figma, Illustrator, Squarespace
Timeline
2 months
Background
The very first thing I did was familiarize myself with the product. QuantGov is a free collection of tools and resources for researchers and policymakers alike to solve the problem of quantifying large amounts of policy text using machine learning and natural language processing.
As the lead UI/UX designer, my focus was user interviews, usability testing, visual design, prototyping, and QA.
Key achievements:
Increasing data downloads by 60%
After conducting user interviews and usability testing, my team was able to come up with a better site structure and boost data downloads, which were one of the early objectives of the project.Improved discoverability by 100%.
After conducting usability testing, we found that users were twice as likely to find the tools they were looking for in the new product structure than in the old.Establishing design standards.
I created the product’s first branding guidelines and design system.
Understanding our users
I want to understand:
Decision process
User motivations
Pain points
Product understanding
User types
Research
We conducted 3 rounds of user interviews. The first focused on discovery. The second and third focused on usability testing.
Our interviewees were either current/past users or potential new users identified by observing our existing user groups.
Eliminating pain points
After conducting user interviews, I realized there was an opportunity to improve the site's information architecture to better reflect our users' needs.
The previous site structure reflected an internal understanding of the product, while my goal was to present the product in a way that is intuitive to the user.
Researchers consist mostly of power users. They tend to download in bulk, conduct detailed searches for the needed data, and/or access our APIs and guides.
Quick users are typically journalists, policymakers, professors, etc. For example, this group tends to visit the site relatively quickly to grab a visual aid.
Students usually dabble in a little bit in all of our functionalities. Users in this group tend to be grad students becoming more proficient in research.
Researchers
Quick users
Students
Site mapping
My teammate and I felt the need to create a site map so the product owners could clearly see the structure of the redesign. The main focus was showcasing how discoverability and re-discoverability wereimproved.
Execution
We built parts of the product on Squarespace and utilized developer time when needed. And other parts were pre-established on AWS.
Visual Chanllenges
A large part of the problem was the disconnect between parts of the product built on AWS and the parts built inside Squarespace. To remedy this issue, I built the first design library and branding guidelines for QuantGov.
Solutions
How can we flow seamlessly from one platform to another?
Due to the divide between Squarespace and AWS, I had to ensure the user’s experience would flow seamlessly between the two backend platforms.
How successful is the new structure?
We understood that the new site structure would be a change for existing users. So, we conducted a round of usability testing to understand the new improvement areas and pain points. After some tweaks and fixes, the result is our newly refined navigation and site structure.
Next Steps
Conduct post-launch testing such as user recordings and heatmaps, to understand the impact of the design.
Test and iterate the new user flow and site updates
Identify new areas of improvement or additional features.