How might we...
make searching for COVID-19 resources less overwhelming?
Navigating COVID
designing a website with guided navigation through COVID-19 resources while considering the user's state of mental and emotional wellbeing
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THE TEAM
6 Content Writers 4 UX Designers/Researchers (Justin Bascos, Steven Diaz, Joshua Quach, and me!) 3 Software Developers 1 Graphic Designer MY ROLE
During my time with this project, I am gathering requirements, prototyping, usability testing, iterating, performing quality assurance and goal setting THE PROBLEM
With the overwhelming amount of information and resources available regarding COVID-19, it can be hard for users to know where start their search. PROJECT GOALS
The goal of the website is to create an interactive resource with guided navigation, not as to further overwhelming users during their information seeking process. RESEARCH
Affinity Map Before I joined the team, they started with their research by interviewing 10 people to understand their experiences and concerns because of the pandemic. The collected data was categorized into 6 themes: |
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Personas
With the interview information and themes from the affinity map, the following personas were created to help focus on who the users of the site would be: |
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Information Architecture
Using the google docs from the content team, the site map was created as a visual supplement for the UX team to understand the user flow and the different layouts that would need to be created (landing page, pathway page, final content page). When the map was shown to the group, the software development team also found the hierarchical layout useful in terms of which layouts can be templated and which are unique. |
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PROTOTYPING
An original prototype was developed during the hackathon, but since I have joined the team, the UX team has developed new prototypes with revamp content written by the public health professionals, and working in tandem with the software development team. Below are some iterations of what we've prototyped: |
original hackathon prototype
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updated card style prototype
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updated decision tree option display
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USER RESEARCH
We had 10 volunteer participants to conduct usability testing on our working prototype to see if there was anything confusing about how to navigate the site, if the site did have a "calming" effect and general feedback regarding the site. A few of the participants noted that they enjoyed the diversity of avatars used in the website, the curved edges of the buttons and waves that gives the site a calmer feeling and the pathway content seemed concise and direct. Feedback we received were font consistency, the term "Navigating Information" was confused as the starting point on the landing page, and questions on how to "future-proof" the content. |
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This project is currently going through QA and we hope to roll out our site soon!
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Meanwhile, check out the NavigatingCOVID team (avatars and descriptions also in progress)!
We were able to find icons and avatars with masks on them and I made edits to some of the icons for the "Meet the Team" section. Icons made by Freepik from www.flaticon.com 
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