PEO EIS
A redesigned website for the U.S. Army’s IT division from an outdated version that was not responsive. In addition to an updated website, the brand was improved to better communicate what PEO EIS is and their work to the general public and government stakeholders.
Improving understanding of U.S. military IT systems
ROLES
User Research
Lo-fidelity prototyping
User testing
Awareness
Who are the audiences?
Where do we start user research?
What are the organizational goals?
The initial project team met with stakeholders to better understand the needs for project and to conduct analysis of Army PEO EIS audiences, brand, content, and analytics.
I joined the team after this phase was complete, but artifacts from this stage served as key references when designing prototypes around audience needs.
Image from initial visual audit across PEO EIS branding and properties.
Ecosystem map and empathy map for the Business Development Professional audience. This was output from a stakeholder session where we narrowed down and built understanding of the primary audiences for the website. Other personas included Soldier, Acquisition Professional, and Media Representative.
Exploration
How might we address the pain points and opportunities?
How might we consider the whole experience?
How might we remain focused on the audiences and their needs?
When I joined the team, there was a good consensus on target audiences and themes uncovered from the discovery phase.
Based on discovery themes, we developed mobile-first user flows that could help our audiences. These mobile screens are drawn in an InVision Freehand board.
Prototyping and testing
Once we had established primary user flows and an initial site map, we combined key screens into interactive InVision prototypes. We then conducted user testing with the mobile and desktop prototypes to validate the effectiveness of our initial task flows.
Early version of the site as a clickable InVision prototype in desktop and mobile
Observation and Iteration
What are people doing today?
What new questions do we have?
What mental models do people have?
Access to direct audiences for testing proved to be difficult for this project. Our solution was to conduct guerilla recruiting of current and former military personnel, acquisition professionals, and others within our professional networks for testing.
Here I am conducting a usability test of a mobile prototype with a defense acquisitions professional.
Feedback and iterations
We took feedback from testing prototypes with users and ended up changing the information architecture to be organized by 6 key “Mission Areas”. Users during testing felt like they better understood the purpose and work behind PEO EIS when content was grouped this way.
After presenting the new information architecture to the client, we received good feedback and a positive response to the new direction. They requested edits focused around three areas: site map, org chart, and visual display of programs.
Sorting PEO EIS divisions and org structure into Mission Area buckets. This structure ultimately informed the final information architecture on the live site.
Mapping potential site architecture options.
Draft of PEO EIS products and services
Outline of org chart structure based on client feedback.
Draft site map
Visual Design
UGroup provided visual design on this subcontract in partnership with Bixal’s creative director. A brand guide and UI guide were also created to convey the Army brand.
PEO EIS photography guidelines in the site brand guide
What I learned from this project.
PEO EIS taught me how to get creative in an environment with many restraints. Access to users and interaction with the client for feedback were both very limited. This forced me to create interview sessions and client demos with as targeted questions as possible to ensure the most helpful feedback.
Additionally, it was my first time working in a multi-vendor environment. I gained valuable experience working with a visual designer from a different company than mine to redesign and launch this website.