Role

UX Designer | UI Designer | Information Architect

Tools

Sketch, Adobe Illustrator, Whimsical.io, pencil and paper, and lots of post-its

Duration

6 Weeks

Overview

For all students, teachers, administrators, policy makers, and legal professionals, the Department of Education is the branch of government that establishes policy, collects data, enforces education laws, and coordinates federal aid across schools in the United States.

It ensures that schools are in compliance with departmental policy, receive assistance as necessary and aims to ensure all students have the opportunity to achieve excellence, are ready to compete in the global economy and to make sure they have access to an equitable education regardless of their personal background.

The DOE is a government branch that establishes the policies and regulations to ensure that the children of America can be competitive in an increasingly global economy.  

The Current Website

Current Website Issues

After speaking to teachers and students, I have discovered the following issues on the current website:

• The navigation bar options and the card links are redundant

• There are a lot of text blocks, which look overwhelming and boring

• It is hard to navigate the site and find desired pages

• Unnecessary links are given priority on the homepage and there is no clear pattern for hierarchy

• The overall look of the website is outdated and unattractive

• The logo does not completely reflect the brand voice of DOE

• The brand of DOE is not clearly reflected in the website

Features, Functionality, Benefits, and Priority

I have created a chart to sort the features needed for the website using Google spreadsheets. This chart shows the features that users will be viewing when they visit the site, the functionality of each feature, the benefits of having each feature in the website, and priority of building each feature. 

Logo Redesign

Although it is not the official DOE logo, the photo on the left is displayed on the website as the logo of the website. It clearly does not reflect the brand voice. The logo on the right is designed to express the brand voice of the Department of Education. The book is representing knowledge and education, while the tree is representing growth. The colors are carefully chosen to compliment personality, tone, language, and purpose of the website. The navy blue is a color that represents knowledge and trustworthiness.