The Challenge
Re-think the way a major government institute communicated their important work and research to their wide and diverse audiences. Determine how new tools and technology can reimagine the way big government organizes, maintains, and distributes its content. And design with the end user in mind while staying true to the mission and goals of the institute.
The Process and Tools We Used
The challenge was moving all of the content from a major NIH internet and intranet from an outdated platform to a Drupal platform that would allow them to better manage the thousands of pieces of digital content.
For these initiatives, we needed to use all the tools in our toolkit, and even invented some customized tools needed to do the job right.
User-Centered Design. The users were many and the audiences were diverse. Before a keystroke of code happened, we dug in to determine who the audience was, what their needs were, and how the institute could meet them.
User Interviews and Surveys
Persona Creation
User Journeymapping
User Testing. Card Sorting and Tree Testing
Wireframing.
Design Mockups. Pattern Lab
Eye Tracking and Heat Mapping.
Content Strategy. This was a heavy lift. The content from two sites, including HTML pages, images, documents, and files was in the tens of thousands. Somebody had to comb through it all to make sure we were only bringing over the most relevant content and to be sure that critical content didn’t get lost in the move.
Content Analysis. Export the entirety of the site and begin the tedious job of breaking it down into smaller, more manageable pieces
Analytics. What hadn’t been looked at in years. What hadn’t been updated.
Content Purge. A move is the best time to clean out your closets and see what’s lurking in the back that you have no need for. A content migration is no different. For the public site migration, we reduced the amount of content we had to move by 50%
Structured Content. For sections of the site, there were key pieces of information that needed to be communicated to users every time. But, with many contributors adding content over a decade, the content didn’t contain a single voice. We created structured content blocks and helped re-write existing content to fit a structure that would be familiar to users across the site and would deliver key information quickly. Entire sections were re-designed to fit these structures while still allowing for unique messaging when necessary
Content Health. Invented a new tool to help content owners quickly assess the health of each piece of content. Did the content fit the mission of the institute. Did it meet the needs of the user. Was it fresh. Was it well written and easily understood.
Content Migration Mapping. A critical tool to make sure content gets to its new destination. I developed cross reference charts to account for each piece of content to be easily reviewed and accounted for after migration.
Drupal Development. We had a crack team of developers on the project. But, before we started building the structure, we worked closely with the development team to ensure our user input was woven into the function and features of the Drupal platform.
User Stories were created to guide the build by the development team. The user stories told the What and the Why. The development team determined the How.
Structured Content. We worked collaboratively to ensure we could make the most of the structured content plans we created during the content analysis. The content analysis informed how we built out the content types where the content would live.
Taxonomy. The content analysis also fed the development of the taxonomy, which would allow us to create new and useful ways for the end-users to find exactly what they needed when they needed it. Each piece of content was tagged to allow Drupal to be able to call content from across the site and pull it together based on users’ needs.
Navigation. The information architecture that was designed before development started allowed us to make the most of Drupal functionality to structure the content in a way that would benefit the user the most. While the architecture was technically “flat” (no folder system for contenet to be burried under and lost), the navigation tools in Drupal would allow us to categorized that content for users who prefered to browse for information.
Search. We analyzed user search behavior to maximize the Search appliance and our content analysis to optimize the search engine, ensuring sought-after information was returned.
The Solution
Our design document provided a blueprint for the development team to build a brand new home for the Institute’s content. And the features and functions of the Drupal platform provided new ways for users to access that content. The result was www.niaid.nih.gov which provides information about the important research the Institute conducts to other researchers, Congress, and the general public. A new intranet platform (firewall protected) allowed the diverse groups that make up the institute better work together to further the Institute mission.
Value Added
By taking a user-centered approach to design and layout, combining it with a full analysis of existing content, and wrapping in stakeholder goals, we distil and consolidate only the most important messaging and can deliver it to the end user in innovative ways to ensure the right content is presented to the right user at the right time. By doing this, we were able to stay true to the institutes’ mission and users’ experience.