USCIS WEBSITE DESIGN
CITIZENSHIP RESOURCE CENTER
This semester, the information Architecture course collaborates with USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration Services) to streamline the website’s information architecture. We aim to help users — immigrants, educators, and related organizations — find the information they need more easily.
Year: 09/2024 - 12/2024
Location: United States, Texas
Type: Industry cooperation Project
Group work: Cheng Ming-Han | Jonathan | Parth | Anjana | Jesse
What We Achieve?
34%
Existing Website
Card Sorting Success Rate
59%
Our Proposal
Card Sorting Success Rate
The success rate increased by 25% !
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​On average, 7.5 more cards were correctly matched.
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The number of incorrectly matched cards decreased.
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The number of "I'm not sure" cards also declined.
These proposals are very practical and useful. Some of them could be implemented immediately.
- by Client
GLOBAL DROPDOWN
BEFORE
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"Citizenship" appears too much like a simple title, causing people to not realize that it is clickable.
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The categorization is inconsistent; the first 3 are Target Audiences, while the last 1 is a Program.
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It is inconsistent with the content in the sidebar.
GLOBAL DROPDOWN
AFTER
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Increase the white space above and below "Citizenship" and adjust the font weight.
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Standardize the categorization by using "Target Audience" for all sections.
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Align the content with the sidebar to allow users to navigate using the same logic.
LOCAL SIDEBAR
BEFORE
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It's difficult to discern the hierarchy of information.
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It doesn't align with the organization of the dropdown, which can easily cause confusion when navigating.
LOCAL SIDEBAR
AFTER
-
Increase the white space above and below "Citizenship" and adjust the font weight.
-
Standardize the categorization by using "Target Audience" for all sections.
-
Align the content with the dropdown to allow users to navigate using the same logic.
CITIZENSHIP RESOURCE CENTER PAGE
BEFORE
CITIZENSHIP RESOURCE CENTER PAGE
AFTER
BEFORE
NO MAIN PAGE FOR EACH CATEGORY
Originally, Learners, Educators, and Organizations did not have standalone pages.
AFTER
W/ MAIN PAGE
However, we believe adding a dedicated page for each, providing an overview of the related subpages, can help users quickly browse and locate needed resources without having to click through each individual page.
How Did We Build The Proposal?
Our Goal
The client (USCIS) provided feedback that their CITIZENSHIP RESOURCE CENTER page needs optimization to help the target groups— "immigrants," "educators," and "organizations"—access the information they need more effectively on the website.
Approach
01 Audit and Inventory Existing Resources
Conduct an audit and inventory analysis of existing resources using both manual and automated methods to identify current issues.
02 Understand the Mental Models of Target Audiences
Use Card Sorting to survey non-native English speakers on their understanding of webpage information.
03 Redesign Labels and Website Pages
Propose redesigns for labels and pages that make it easier for the target groups to understand and find the information they need.
Result
25%
The new labels improved the users' accuracy by 25%.
They are more aligned with the users' mental models and make the website's structure easier to understand.
40%
The new labels reduced the error classification rate by 40%
Effectively decreasing the customer's uncertainty regarding the content of the information.
Medium Posts
I also documented the development experience of this project in Medium posts, providing designers and developers with an opportunity to reference the project's analysis and optimize the website's Information Architecture.
