GIS Forum Site Architecture
Improving Site Exploration and Findability
Overview
I redesigned and developed a section of the TxGIO site that focused on their annual GIS Forum, improving the site experience to engage more sponsors and attendees by creating design consistency and simplified site architecture.
Role
Timeline
2 months
Team
UX/UI Developer(me), Project Manager, Marketing Strategist, Developer Intern
Methods
Design workshops, information architecture, wireframing, front-end development
Discovery
Interviews & Analytics
The site currently showcases annual forums dating back to 2014, with corresponding pages for each forum. I conducted 30-minute interviews with staff to understand primary page goals, I collected google analytics to gauge user engagement and retention, and I input the site architecture into Airtable to visualize the information hierarchy.
💡 Insight
There were a lot of static, dead pages clogging up the backend of the website and hurting site SEO. I looked into the file retention policy for the agency and compared that to low numbers of page hits for forum years that are outside the retention period. I used this data to convince content owners on setting a limit for the website moving forward.
Stakeholder Workshop
I conducted a stakeholder workshop where I gathered insights on business needs, design expectations, and development timelines. I shared initial findings from user research and worked with the group to ideate on solutions that would benefit both business and user needs. This helped prioritize content and set expectations for design deliverables - which focused more on information architecture and structural components that could be used in an upcoming redesign.
Problem
The current forum pages feel pieced together and recycled from past years, but the site is also in a 'branding limbo'.
Design & Development
Launching in Sync with Marketing
I created wireframes for each section of the new site and scheduled deliverables based on incoming 2023 marketing content. I designed pages with a phased approach, keeping in mind the dynamic and static sections identified in user research so content could be added to the site and updated in real time.
My goal was to streamline user flows, create malleable components, and get rid of unnecessary content - all while giving myself enough time to code out the front end.
Landing Page
I kept the designs minimal, but incorporated aspects of the forum annual "theme" - designing with the assumption that a new theme will be incorporated yearly.
Agenda Page
I integrated dynamic content through our API so that agenda information could be updated on an as-needed basis without hard code pushes. This also allowed past years' information to be stored neatly on the backend while removing multiple blocks of redundant code clogging up the site.
Additional Pages
I created minimalistic pages for annually static content like forum location and sponsorship opportunities. This helped clean up dead pages and improved SEO and findability for basic forum information.
Results
Compared to previous year:
255% increase in net income
26% increase in attendance
17% increase in sponsorships
