Project Title: Redesigning NYC Park Website
Class: INFO 643 – Information Architecture & Interaction Design
Project Description: For the final project, the goal is to relaunch sections of the NYC Park website in terms of finding a park based on the fact that The New York City Department of Parks & Recreation has an urgent need to make its website more user-centered and user friendly responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. Following that, the challenge was to redesign the NYC park’s homepage and Find a Park page to improve the find-ability and presentation of relevant content to support user engagement with NYC Parks.
Methods: To define new navigation and organizational structure for the park’s website and optimize it for both desktop and mobile, we interviewed park goers and observed their behaviors to interact with information regarding the park. Next, we defined the challenges and established our research objectives in order to understand the context in which users engage with the NYC parks homepage and Find a Park feature. By conducting user research, developing mindsets, and a user journey based on a user’s needs and actions at each step, we developed a prototype for the revised client’s web page. We tested our proposed sitemap by conducting card sort tests. Finally, we applied our insights to restructure content on the NYC Parks homepage to aid user navigation of the site.
As the final component in the group project, I prepared a deliverable telling the story of how my team arrived at your final design proposal, emphasizing my contributions to the project.
My Role: For this project, I worked with Ellen Connell and Xiujie Bi. Personalized Experiences / User-Centered Services” was our team’s motto or guiding principles in our redesign process.
My role was tech/product manager and I worked on several tasks; user interviews, user testing, tree testing, and comparative analysis, wireframe connection. Together we generated user insights, developed features, and structuring content.
Learning Outcome Achieved: Research
Rationale: For this project, we formulated a research question about a topic that will directly address challenges and directions for the final product. We employed research methods including in in-depth, semi-structured interviews, and pure observations. This research process allowed us to gain practical knowledge and hands-on experience in terms of designing digital interfaces and a user-centered product. The final project required me to do practical research in a collaborative manner and create a story about my contribution to the final project. The design story I completed as part of the final project, allowed me to learn how to display individual insight and final design on my own.
Jiyoung Lee 