OVERVIEW
Making civil content easier to understand and explore
The Product
Our National Conversation (ONC) is a non-profit organization that provides a platform for unbiased political content and civil dialogue.
The Problem
The outdated website made it difficult for users to navigate content and understand ONC’s mission.
The Role
I collaborated with the UI/UX team to improve navigation, accessibility, and engagement, primarily focusing on the “Explain That” and “Multimedia” pages, responsive design, and overall visual system.
DEFINE
The problem behind ONC's difficult navigation system
Before redesigning the website, I reviewed previous usability testing reports and conducted a heuristic audit to identify any issues.
Key user pain points:
- 80% of users struggled to understand the existing navigation system
- 60% of users found it difficult to explain ONC’s mission after exploring the website
- 54% of users felt the website was outdated and too text-heavy
IDEATE
Synthesizing prior research
Based on the research, I focused on 3 main objectives for this redesign:
1.
enhance the navigation system for intuitiveness
2.
increase site engagement, especially with ONC’s educational content
3.
strengthen visual consistency and accessibility across the site
PROTOTYPE
How did our redesign impact the audience?
After iterating updated prototypes in Figma, I collaborated with the team to conduct usability testing with 5 participants.
What improved?
- 5/5 users understood ONC's mission after exploring the redesigned site
- 4/5 users successfully completed key navigation tasks
- users found the balance between text and imagery more effective than before
What still caused friction?
- News, Opinions, and Proposals pages felt too visually similar
- some pages contained too much content, creating visual clutter and left users overwhelmed
FINAL DESIGN
A new, clear, and engaging ONC website
Using our usability testing insights and earlier research, we designed a modern and accessible interface that made ONC's mission and content easier to understand.
My contributions
I primarily focused on the “Explain That” and “Multimedia” sections while contributing to the overall website redesign.
- enhanced text and background contrast to meet accessibility standards
- redesigned the "Explain That" page to better communicate its purpose as a civic education resource
- created a multimedia hub for all of ONC's visual and audio content
- restructured underutilized content and whitespace to create a clear hierarchy
REFLECTION
Paving the way for accessible civic education
Impact
- 100% of users revealed that ONC's mission became more intuitive
- 30% increase in overall user satisfaction and engagement
- refined 7+ pages and user flows across responsive layouts
- modernized the website's visual system while improving consistency, scalability, responsiveness, and accessibility
Key Takeaways
Designing for information-heavy experiences
Since there were a lot of ONC educational content, I used a lot of the usability testing results to help make text-heavy experiences easier to scan.
Enhancing consistency through the visual system
Working with an existing design system taught me how important reusable components are for consistency and responsiveness.
Balancing user needs with organizational goals
Working with my team and the C-suite taught me how to balance user feedback, accessibility, and business requirements.
