Transforming an Outdated Digital Experience
My Roles
Research, UI/UX Design, Prototyping
TIMEFRAME
2 months
Platform
Web // Desktop, Tablet, Mobile
ED.gov Redesign Proposal
In early 2020, the U.S. Department of Education posted a challenge seeking creative redesigns for their public facing website.
Our design team at IDSI joined the challenge, developing research-informed prototypes for ED.gov.
At the time, ED.gov’s outdated design made information hard to find and lacked consistency, accessibility, and visual engagement.
Ed.gov during Spring 2020
The redesign aimed to achieve the following key goals:
Accessible across all devices
Integrated social and subscription tools
Clean and user-centered modern aesthetic
Consistent and recognizable ED branding
Innovative and interactive features
Engaging and intuitive navigation
We analyzed state and city government and education websites to understand how they approached design, organization, and accessibility.
Focus areas included:
Clear information structure
Social media and RSS integration
Accessibility best practices
Responsive, mobile-friendly design
We created a moodboard to highlight effective approaches and modern aesthetics that we observed from our benchmarking research.
Moodboard created with Milanote
Based on our research, we conducted a “How Might We” exercise to translate our findings into design opportunities.
We focused on the core goals of the redesign, asking questions such as:
How might we simplify navigation for a diverse audience?
How might we make the site feel more modern and engaging?
How might we highlight key resources without overwhelming users?
This exercise helped align our team on priorities before reorganizing the site’s structure and planning the new user flow.
How Might We insights diagrammed with Lucidchart
One of the main issues with the existing ED.gov site was its complex and confusing navigation. To better understand its structure, we created a detailed sitemap mapping every link across the site.
Through this process, we uncovered numerous dead and duplicate links, which revealed major opportunities for improvement. We then reorganized and condensed the links into a more intuitive structure, prioritizing the key pages that would be included in our prototype for the challenge submission.
Sitemap created with Coggle
With a clearer picture of the site’s information architecture, we created wireframes to define layout and functionality.
The challenge required prototypes for six key pages:
1. Home
2. News
3. Grants
4. Info
5. Program Offices
6. Contact
My role focused on designing the Home, Grants, and Program Offices pages, as well as an example layout for a selected Program Office.
Building on the wireframes, we created hi-fidelity prototypes to reflect the clarity and accessibility expected of a federal agency website.
Hierarchy: A clear visual hierarchy improved readability and organization.
Responsiveness: A consistent grid system ensured the layout adapted seamlessly across different devices.
Accessibility: An integrated accessibility widget from UserWay provided 508 compliance, supporting features such as text resizing, contrast adjustments, and screen reader compatibility.
Visuals: Icons and imagery were used throughout the pages to break up dense text and create a more engaging, approachable experience.
Home page
Grants page
Program Offices page
A selected Program Office page:
Office of the Secretary and Deputy Secretary
Mobile designs of all pages
Video: Desktop version of ED.gov redesign
Although our proposal was not selected, the experience was incredibly valuable.
The process required balancing accessibility, information hierarchy, and visual clarity within content requirements.
The lessons I learned from this project have continued to shape how I approach usability and communication in my work today.