U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service
A Digital Transformation for the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) manages national wildlife refuges, protects endangered species, manages migratory birds, conservation, and restores wetlands.
The Challenge
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service wrestled with a fragmented web presence and was looking for a redesign. Inconsistent information across dozens of differing regional sites made it difficult for users to find conservation resources and services FWS offered. An inconsistent level of accessibility also hindered the FWS's ability to connect with its many users equally. Lastly, outdated technology and limited digital support caused FWS staff to spend more time responding to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests instead of focusing on modernizing the digital experience they offered.
All this meant that providing FWS with a new website was only one part of the solution they needed. FWS hired Limina, a UX and technical consultancy I am a part of, to lead them through this digital transformation.
FWS.gov before digital transformation and redesign
The Solution
After extensive internal and external user research, including generative interviews, business process analysis, audience segmentation resulting in personas, and shared identity alignment, it was concluded that for the project to succeed, it needed to:
Redesign the website with modern UX practices for a better user experience
Consolidate content on one CMS for efficient management and modern processes
Restructure staff roles and workflows for improved operational efficiency
Implement user-centric information architecture for easy, consistent navigation
Standardize website styles and layouts, ensuring accessibility compliance
Organize content into clear digital service offerings for users
Establish governance for consistent content, design, and data management
Provide comprehensive training and ongoing support for staff adoption
Mood board directions
Interaction modeling of the new services section
Created templates and mockups that incorporated real content
Curated imagery (from FWS's library of nature and wildlife photography) for inclusion in designs
Wrote UX microcopy
Ran design reviews with client stakeholders across departments and regions
Provided a foundational design system to support the UI library
Created a new flow and templates to support user exploration and consumption of FWS services
Established a species profile builder that supported the consistent management of species information
Built interactive prototypes for usability testing across internal and external personas
Moderated, analyzed, and reported on usability test findings
Established a consistent look and feel for the consolidated website
Built out an accessible atomic (modular) library of reusable styles, components, and templates
Collaborated with user research to determine interaction models that reflected the users' mental model
Reflected tree testing results in the navigational structures, layout, and design
My contribution
A project of this size and breadth took many subject matter experts. I was brought in as the Senior UX Specialist and lead designer on the project where I led or heavily participated in all of the following:
Results
The usability tests were expansive and spanned across personas. All tasks requested of the participants were overwhelmingly successful, including within the completely new conceptual sections.
The overhaul of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's website, alongside implementing a content management system, was a substantial, multi-year initiative spearheaded by my self and my amazing Limina colleagues. The project went far beyond redesigning the website, prompting a significant transformation within the organization.
Conclusion & Learnings
This project encompassed research, redesign, and deployment phases, engaging multiple teams over an extended timeline. The prolonged duration underscored the importance of resilient designs and a flexible visual framework. Complicating matters, a new iteration of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) emerged during the process. Thankfully, our decision to adopt a modern, minimalist aesthetic, guided by U.S. Web Design System principles, ensured the redesigned website's endurance and accessibility. Furthermore, the implemented CMS structures promise a streamlined future for edits or redesigns, reducing the effort needed for updates.