Ministry of Economic Development - Companies Office website redesign
The effects of OU’s work in setting the highest possible standards for the direction of our project cannot be overstated. Redevelopment of our processes can only ever focus on our clients thanks to the Persona and related outputs that OU worked closely with us to develop. Our project is extremely well-researched as a direct result OU’s work, and will deliver services to our clients in the best possible way. Their involvement left the team with valuable education in the importance of user-centred design, which is guiding all work on the project. This valuable influence is also spreading to other areas of the Ministry... - Justin Hygate, Group Manager Business Registries, Ministry of Economic Development
The need
The Ministry of Economic Development (MED) was redeveloping the core systems of the Companies Office with the aim of providing a world class user experience. Optimal Usability was commissioned from June - September 2008 to conduct user research and develop templates for key pages of the website which provided a solid foundation to ensure users remained front of mind during the development phase.
The approach
The phases to Optimal Usability’s approach were:
- Understanding the scope of the new system, by conducting workshops and one-on-one interviews with key stakeholders and reviewing the business processes.
- User testing / contextual enquiry of the existing system functionality and experience.
- Creating personas to ensure that the design was focused on the most important users from the very start.
- Developing a user-centred information architecture to help ensure that users could easily find the information and functionality they need.
- Developing and user testing wireframes and HTML designs to ensure that usability was baked into the new design from the very start.
The outcomes
Optimal Usability’s research confirmed many of MED’s suspected issues of the current site whilst identifying new issues that needed to be addressed in the redesign. The research also helped to give MED staff a clearer picture of their users and their behaviours which was communicated to the wider organisation through the use of personas.
As much as Optimal Usability’s expertise contributed to valuable research insights and high quality wireframe designs, it was MED’s commitment to its customers and its willingness to engage Optimal Usability as part of the team that ensured the overall success of the project.
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