Residents face significant barriers when interacting with city government services online. The existing structure forces users to navigate multiple disconnected systems, leading to: inefficient document tracking, fragmented user experience, and a host of accessibility concerns.

The scope of this project includes a primary focus of designing a personalized portal feature for the existing Seattle.gov website by targeting users who regularly interact with city services.

Key constraints with this project were working within existing infrastructure of an established website, adhering to accessibility guidelines, the limitations with current technology, security standards, and budget concerns.

My research approach used competitive analysis, user interviews, persona development, and affinity mapping as my synthesis. Drawing data from three platforms praised for their government designs (GOV.UK, NYC.GOV, UTAH.GOV) I created a matrix of strengths, weaknesses, functionality, and areas where I could improve my product.

User interviews, conducted using a diverse sample of Seattle residents, showed many of the same problems initially considered in the problem section of this project. The pain points to consider here were: Document status uncertainty, fragmented systems and multiple logins, and barriers to accessibility. By using Personas, I could paint a clearer picture for how to design the portal by creating a story with clear expectations for user needs.

Further synthesizing the data collected, I ran an affinity test, where all of my research findings were clustered into themes. From here, I was able to narrow down the feature set and consider a path forward for my designs.

I conducted moderated usability testing with 5 participants from my initial interviews. Testing sessions lasted 45-60 minutes each, using think-aloud protocol only intervening when participants were completely stuck on the prototype screens.

User testing showed most tasks worked well with only small changes needed before launch. I focused revisions on accessibility and matching how users would expect this system to work (a key usability heuristic). Key fixes included reordering some screens, adding tooltips for clarity, and creating a session timeout toggle for better security.