This project is intended to enhance the features and capabilities of a local township to better serve residents, visitors, and businesses.
The existing website can be hard to navigate and the essential tools are not well organized. This causes residents to call in to the township for problems they can solve online. This creates more work for office staff and frustration for the user. Our goal will be to provide an easier experience navigating to the tools and features of the website.
By utilizing Google Analytics data, our primary traffic comes from male (55%) users between the ages of 25 and 34 (34%). I would like to find out more about why there are less older residents utilizing the existing website and improve the design and services currently available. Our target audience will be users between 25 and 64.
I want to make sure that our application is useable by a wide range of people. The township census data reports a population of 20,000 residents with an average age of 43; approximately 20% of the population is under 18 years old. Based on these statistics, I am identifying the following challenges:
Residents who are disabled should be able to consume the information and features in this application. This also includes township documents, calendars, meeting minutes, and more.
The township has many departments that will need to communicate with on another to discuss any new features that may reduce work for office staff or provide a more positive experience for users.
The township has many different services that provide data on zoning, laws and regulations, etc. These services scatter useful information across several platforms.
Residents between the ages of 25 and 65 and who have visited the current website at least once in the past year were interviewed. Our research indicates that users want to be able to pay bills online, access permit forms, contact the township quickly, and find trash pickup days. Let's meet our persona...
John's goal is to find out when trash pickup will be rescheduled. He knows that he can call the township, but he is unsure of what department. He prefers to find the information online.
| ACTION | Find township website | Navigate website | Vist contact page | Complete contact form |
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| Feeling Adjective |
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| Improvement Opportunities | Physical displays on township property advertising the website | Add a quick links section for residents to quickly get to important pages | Provide an interactive component to try to deal with common issues without the need to contact the township | John has to wait for a response but would prefer a quicker answer |
Given the previous user story, John should not have to wait for a response from the township.
The process to contact the township should be as seamless as possible. A majority of internet users know how to navigate to a contact page and fill out a form. I want to offer alternatives to allow for the user to choose the preferred method of communication.
The first round of usability studies were used to bring the mockups from paper to digital formats. The second round of studies brought changes utilized in the high-fidelity prototypes.
The township UX design utilized township colors and brand identity while providing easy access to the most requested features. News and pinned stories are centrally affixed on the homepage to allow easy access to posts and alerts. An email signup form is easily accessible on all main pages. Quick access links and a 'How Do I...?' drop down menu allow users to quickly find what they are looking for. A contact form with alternative methods of communication is available, just in case the user was unable to find the information elsewhere in the app. Finally, the prototype simulates navigation to a sample blog post with related posts.