Homeland Security
Natural Disaster Assistance

dhs.gov website redesign

Kelsey Mitchell
Sam Samueli
Paul Becker

background

  • Natural disasters are happening now more than ever, and people need an effective, virtual, way to apply for assistance
  • The current government built system lacks obvious navigation to get to the correct page in general
  • Usability and accessibility issues experienced by users causes many users to give up applying completely
  • With inconsistent UI elements and symbols, users are left confused and unable to find pertinent information

user research

Interviews

We began conducting interviews amongst people who have been involved in a natural disaster, to empathize with their pain points. The interviewees were then asked to go to dhs.gov to see their interaction with the website

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Interview qualifications:

  • Has been involved in a natural disaster
  • Ideally a candidate who has had to go thru the application process to apply for disaster assistance after being involved in a natural disaster

Below are the statements in the interview that were most impactful, giving us insight to develop a thoughtful problem statement.


user testing of current website- dhs.gov

With the many sections of dhs.gov, we put on user tests to understand if users are able to navigate easily through the site to find information regarding disaster relief and if they are able to locate where they can apply. We analyzed:

  • Navigation Paths
  • Pain Points
  • Reaction to the UI and aesthetics of the layout, imagery and text, etc.

View the full user testing plan here

this is the current process users must go sort through to eventually be redirected to an entirely new page to apply for assistance

findings

  • navigation is confusing and hard for the user to understand where to begin the process to apply for assistance
  • users were off-put by being redirected to another page to apply for assistance
  • multiple search bars directed towards different areas of the website confused users
  • vital information could not be found easily which caused additional navigation issues

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Results from virtual collaboration via Affinity diagramming sorted into Accessibility, Navigation and Usability
Goals directed by user testing and research
  • Streamline how many steps it takes to begin the application process
  • Redesign the search bar so there is only one, which is able to search the entire website, not just portions
  • Bring highly important information to the front of users view by providing scannable links and resources, to ensure they are getting the information that is essential
  • Provide more clarity and give confirmations as users are going though this process.
  • Increase accessibility by offering more languages than English and Spanish

user persona & empathy map

to develop the most accurate problem statement, we created a user persona and empathy map to relate more to the users real life scenario
Problem Statement
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People affected by a natural disaster need an easy, accessible way to apply for government assistance once disaster has struck. Giving citizens a more efficient way to apply for assistance will lead to more people receiving help and a more pleasant, empowering experience.

color analysis (of current design on dhs.gov)

to evaluate the sites accessibility, the current site, dhs.gov, through accessiBe.com. A full report was ran, analyzing the page for these elements: clickables, titles, page orientation, menus, graphics, forms, readability, carousels, tables and general elements like text, and breadcrumbs.

WCAG 2.1 Level AA Success Criteria: Compliance Audit

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Current Verdict: NON-Compliant                                     View entire Compliance Audit

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UI heuristic Analysis

to evaluate the current website, we evaluated the heuristics of the current dhs.gov pages with issues that we have flagged, and potential design solutions. For reference, we kept in mind the Laws of UX

card sorting

to improve functionality, we recategorized the current layout through card sorting. Internally within our group by brainstorming on a virtual whiteboard, and externally, conducting user testing where individuals are asked to sort the cards to understand where users are expecting to see certain categories.