Background
The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit handles more appeal cases than any other circuit in the US. It’s also a technology leader, the first to live stream all its hearings.
But its website — not redesigned for over 15 years — was dense and confusing. The Ninth Circuit asked 18F to lay design and governance foundations for a new user-centered public website.
To get them there, my team redesigned the site from the ground up and coached staff through the process so they could maintain it.
Process
The Ninth Circuit was eager to adopt a user-centered design practice, but needed some help getting there. My team brought them along throughout our entire process. We ran workshops throughout our engagement to coach our partners on plain language writing, information architecture, and usability testing practices.
In parallel, my team set to work on redesigning the site from the ground up.
A crash course in the judicial system
In this 12-week project, my team needed to get up to speed on the Ninth Circuit and its users ASAP. We quickly conducted and synthesized fifteen stakeholder interviews, using the findings to identify recommendations for improving the site.
We also wanted to pinpoint who within the circuit court is involved with building and maintaining the current website, and learn more about their experiences, challenges, and potential opportunities to improve. We conducted a series of interviews with court employees across multiple divisions who touch the site in some way or another.
We synthesized those interviews into a number of findings we then presented to the court for feedback.
Laying the visual foundations
As the product designer, I had to get the Court to align on a design approach ASAP. In parallel with our discovery work, I conducted a usability review of the existing website using established heuristics that I tweaked to fit an informational website, as well as attended to the 21st Century Integrated Digital Experience Act.
I also conducted a competitive analysis of other court systems in the US and abroad. I then got the stakeholders to articulate the design direction in an hourlong workshop.
Guiding the court to an authentic visual language
One of the court’s goals for its redesign was to wow its users. I delivered that delight factor by drawing inspiration from my competitive analysis and architectural details from the court’s iconic headquarters in San Francisco: the James R. Browning US Courthouse. I created four different style tiles, and page mock-ups based on them, so stakeholders could decide on the look and feel of the new site.
I had the good fortune to work with Mel on a project to redesign the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals website. Mel is a gifted designer with deep knowledge of the US Web Design System and design best practices while collaborating with different stakeholders to agree on a coherent product vision. I don’t know how they do it, but Mel can do work at a head-spinning pace too!
Mel is great at tackling complex needs, distilling them into tangible, quality designs, and making it all look easy. Mel was also a great research partner, attending every session, taking copious notes, and quickly turning insights into design.
I had so much fun working with Mel and would love to do so again. In a heartbeat!
Gale Fernow, 18F Service Designer
Style tile concepts
Designing a new information architecture
At the 3-day on-site my team did halfway through the project, we presented our working recommendations (all of which were accepted). Along with explaining the impact of visual design on users and presenting the style tiles, I led a card-sorting exercise to start identifying the new site’s information architecture.
Ensuring a modern development approach and reusability
Having gotten the stakeholders to align on a visual direction, I focused on giving the court the tools it would need to build a user-centered and sustainable website. First, I created a design system based on the US Web Design System. Next, I used the team’s IA, content audit, and user research to identify and build reusable page templates.
Getting ready for testing
Using newly rewritten content from one of my teammates, I was able to quickly combine the design system and the templates into mockups and a clickable prototype for use in usability testing.
Results
The Court of Appeals now has a new design system and page templates that will be reused for other Ninth Circuit entities. A clickable prototype, new site structure, content audit, and usability testing plan will help the Court implement it. And the new site will make it easier for 1.1 million users anually to find and access public information more quickly.