My role in this project was to lead the UX strategy and vision. This was done by completing competitive analysis and researching specific industry trends; all to create a more digestible and easily navigable information architecture and user flows/journeys. I worked along side project managers, digital strategists, UI designers, and developers to create a modern responsive website for the economic development sector of the State of Nevada.

Design and develop a website for the Governor’s Office of Economic Development (GOED). This website will be modern, mobile-responsive and conform to the recommendations laid out in the Governor’s Council on Developmental Disabilities and standard digital design best practices.

In addition to reviewing historical on-site engagement data, we implemented additional data collection mechanisms to identify off-site metrics tied into searchability and site performance.

We investigated many different areas (both on and off-site) to help us better understand Nevada’s presence online, the performance of the current site, the effectiveness of it’s user engagement, and its standing in comparison to some its competitors. We completed a competitive analysis and researching into specific industry trends.

Chosen research activities:

• Focus Groups
• Stakeholder Interviews
• User Interviews
• Archetype Evaluation
• Archetype Development
• Usability Evaluation
• Information Architecture Analysis
• Task Analysis
• Current State Task Flow Analysis
• Card Sorting & Future State Information Architecture

Now that we have research data, we can now jump into design solutioning. During this phase, I’ll start to digest the user stories. I’ll meet with digital strategist, creative director, project manger, and developers (front-end, service, and/or database) as needed during this time.

Once the story and scope is understood, I’ll start my typical process (all of which is iterated and validated along the way):

• Task flows
• Sketches
• White boarding
• Low fidelity wireframes > High fidelity mockups
• Prototypes
• Annotate design files and prototypes with notes and technical specifications

I performed multiple scenario-based user testing sessions with Think Aloud protocol and invited other team members and stakeholders to observe the activity. Having silent observers is always helpful to get a “first-hand” understanding and clear insight of the user’s responses to our solution recommendations. It helped with distilling the assumptions and personal preferences too!

During user testing, I realized that I need to add a language selector for the website and add a few visual cues to aid in site navigation. The language selector was added to the header for easy access at all times. To address the navigation issues, I added breadcrumbs to internal pages, kept the page the user was on highlighted in the “yellow” color, and added a dropdown menu in the main navigation to show secondary navigation selections.

Once all testing sessions were completed for the sprint, I compiled a synthesized information in the form of a Usability Report. This deliverable helped our team and stakeholders to be in the loop with user feedback, necessary revisions and overall sense of success (or failure). Test early, fail early, rectify early.