ROLE
Product Designer
TIME
June - August 2021
TEAM
Gina Kim, Annie Whitford, Koko Nakajima, Alison Abreu-Garcia, Awakash Bodiwala, Hanbyul Jo
WHAT I DID
Low- to High- Fidelity Prototyping
TOOLS USED
Figma
The ACLU is a historic organization with an expertise in legal work that fights for civil liberties across 18 main issue areas. "Issue Pages" on aclu.org showcase the historical and current progress for each of these issues.
How can Issue Pages reflect the nationwide organization's work in pressing topics?
We created a final recommendation for 2 phases of issue page designs that were educational, actionable, and feasible for implementation.
I worked within the ACLU's design system, creating new components that followed and improved current UX patterns on aclu.org.
components I designed within the ACLU's design system
All 18 issues would have been too overwhelming to design for at once, so the team focused on the LGBTQ page first to continue collaboration with a team they were already working on another project with.
These conversations shaped the user research that Gina Kim, this project's full-time designer, conducted with 9 LGBTQ-identifying individuals. While they shared interest in the ACLU's work, there was shared frustration about the page's confusing navigation, history-focused content, and disconnected actions.
Users saw the ACLU as a trusted organization, but didn't see Issue Pages as a trusted resource.
Examples of content & usability issues on aclu.org
Together, the ACLU team created the following design principles based on user and stakeholder feedback to guide our explorations:
Prioritize information that constituents should care about
Convey progress of our work
Create a human connection to legal cases
Pair information and action
We then put these principles into practice through 3 overall rounds of iteration:
Our final design recommendations came in 2 phases:
The ideal UX and content design to serve both stakeholder and user needs.
A scaled-back feasible design that serves as a stepping stone to Phase 2. This design focuses on UX improvements while maintaining the content from the current page to accommodate for pending stakeholder approval on content changes and engineering capacity during a CMS migration.
We heard from users that the current Issue Page felt history-focused instead of urgent and pressing, especially regarding the day-to-day realities that many LGBTQ people are facing.
The new landing area shows users background information, an opportunity to learn more about a story in-depth, and a way to take action, all at the top of the page.
Users shared positive feedback about the draw of court cases especially and learning about the ACLU’s legal expertise, but there was a mismatch between the ACLU's legal language and the general public's familiarity with these topics.
The court case tracker below is one way legal information can be made more educational and accessible for any user.
Users shared that they really wanted to see and hear about people at the center of our work, such as lawyers and clients.
This “Plaintiffs Who Are Making History” section displays the photos and names of plaintiffs, instead of long court case titles, to humanize legal work and help build empathy for folks affected by the issue.
Users shared that they wanted firstly more relevant actions that catered to their capacity to support and the issue itself, as well as context that connected the action to the content shown.
The new action section provides an opportunity to show issue-specific actions that are localized to a user's state.
Shared goals that were established in meetings prior to my internship allowed me to understand stakeholder perspectives and design with that in mind.
This applied to our team as well– the weeks we spent on research synthesis and creating design principles led to an intentional design process later on.
We addressed stakeholder language and user understanding through components such as the court case tracker that broke down the legal process or the "Plaintiffs Who Are Making History" section that humanized a legal proceeding.
I love designing because I get to imagine futures that don't currently exist! And get paid for it! Dreaming of possibilities with different teams were some of my favorite moments.
It was especially interesting to see how a new design could change, make use of, or simplify workflows that other teams are involved with as well.