Projects / Insight Idaho
Creating a Platform for a New Government Initiative in Idaho
Introduction
After working on the website for In Time Tec, I was asked to work on other projects with the UX/UI team. I transitioned my role from Graphic Designer to UX/UI Designer during this project.
Insight Idaho is a statewide initiative dedicated to integrating data across agencies to empower policymakers, stakeholders, and community partners with actionable insights. Insight Idaho helps drive informed decision-making while maintaining the highest standards of security, confidentiality, and ethical data use. The initiative provides a centralized platform that enables users to evaluate statewide programs and policies, leading to more effective resource allocation and improved outcomes for Idaho citizens.
Scope of work
Branding
Website
Timeline
01/2023 - 02/2023
01/2023 - 04/2023
Live since 09/2024:
"This design for this website will now set the standard for the state's digital footprint going forward."
-Government Official
The Problem
Lacking government transparency
Constituents have lost trust that the government works for them.
Idaho's state agencies and stakeholders faced challenges in accessing and integrating data from diverse sources. The lack of a centralized, secure repository hindered efficient governance and data-driven decision-making. This fragmentation made it difficult for policymakers and community partners to address complex issues with clarity.
The Challenge
A huge target audience
For agencies:
We needed to find ways to inspire agencies to contribute more data to help with the State's goal to bring more transparency to constituents. This meant ensuring the security of data, and empowering agencies to join in the mission.
For constituents:
We needed to build an educational platform to share important information about Idaho communities and their governance for all citizens. Accessibility was very important for measuring success. Everything from color to imagery needed to represent the whole of Idaho.
The Soultion
Carefully crafted design
Accurately express the mission
All content was carefully curated to make the platform as clear as possible to the vast target audience.
Brand & web design
With accessibility as the main priority, all typography and color choices were used as tools to frame content and make everything easy to understand and navigate for the user.
hi-fi web Design:
hi-fi Mobile Design:
Background
Into the weeds
The Process
Discovery
How do we get citizens and agencies to trust that the data is going to be used to their benefit, and get them invested in contributing to positive change by using data?
Through our interviews, we discovered that fear around the misuse of personal data was going to be a massive blocker for the project's progression and acceptance. We also uncovered that agencies were typically possessive of the data they had collected from citizens, and weren't as willing to participate in ventures that require sharing data with the state.
To better understand the problem, we did a site map, competitive analysis, internal and external interviews, and a 20 second gut test. We were able to uncover a lot of information about the intentions of this new government project, and how to convey it appropriately.
Initial brainstorming with the client and the team were essential to understanding the complexity of this project.
Getting deeper into who this was for, what it was going to do, and how it was going to create change.
This is where we really uncovered what questions we needed to ask for interviews, and finding gaps in what the State Controller's Office was out to accomplish.
Competitive analysis: What is working for other states and what has made them successful in similar projects?
How is content organization making a difference in receiving information?
Trust was going to make or break this project, so we took a deep dive and investigated the structure of other websites and found a similar framework between them.
How are competitors using information to their advantage?
Competitors kept it simple, where as Insight Idaho's terminology was consistently complex, the competition was maintaining a flow of content that was easy for users to scan.
The 20 second gut test got the team visually aligned on the best path forward.
Color and overall design should lean modern and human focused.
Successful websites commanded authority through data, not through their status in government, because users typically found the government untrustworthy. By leaning into the change that could be made through data, Insight was going to capture the trust of the audience by doing it's job, without the fear tactics.
Style needed to lean blue-green, with clean san-serif fonts.
The team strongly disliked warm, cautionary colors, and truly embraced colors that promoted trust based on color psychology. They wanted to stand out from the crowd when it came to being innovative, but didn't want to stray too far from what the audience would be expecting.
Site Map
Simple navigation. No menus. Less clicks. Easier interaction.
We chose to organize the content in a way that didn't overwhelm the user, and made it easier for them to quickly access the information they were looking for.
Lo-Fi Mockups
Before we had content we got moving on lo-fi's, we used discovery and competitor analysis to create a space for the content to work.
We made the lo-fi's with the intention of keeping content short, and easily digestible so that both citizens and officials could understand the mission clearly. We also wanted to make a page that showed an in-depth process, which would help agencies feel comfortable sharing their data with the government.
The client wanted the look and feel of a data company. We made sure to build sections that would not look like a government entity.
Branding
A mark that shows connection with the state, through the use of data.
Staying clear of cautionary colors and symbols that had potential for misunderstanding, we chose data points that come together and radiate throughout the state symbol to emphasize connectivity and improvement for the state and it's citizens.
