Applying Human Centered Design to boost US Federal Government Agency’s global mission

The U.S. African Development Foundation (USADF) is an independent U.S. government agency established by Congress to invest directly in African grassroots enterprises and social entrepreneurs. USADF’s investments increase incomes, revenues, and jobs by promoting self-reliance and market-based solutions to poverty. USADF creates pathways to prosperity for marginalized populations and underserved communities in the Sahel, Great Lakes, and the Horn of Africa. USADF engaged ASSYST to reimagine and redesign the primary external communication platform, the agency website. This project was undertaken against the backdrop of the 21st Century Integrated Digital Experience Act (IDEA), which was signed into law in 2018, requiring all federal agencies to make sure their websites are user-friendly and support digital forms.

Discovering with the Content Consumers

ASSYST understands every consumer seeking online services is presented with several options. Considering the unique mission of USADF, our approach was to identify the audience, discover problems, and down-select the right problems that need a solution.

With this in mind, ASSYST created a research brief and associated objectives. Our inquiry centered around empathizing with user personas, such as whom are we building or redesigning this site? The generative research process involved creating a roster of users, including Agency Leadership, Communications, Program, Grant Management, and Information Technology. Most importantly, we considered the international audience seeking grants representing Small and Medium Enterprises, Entrepreneurs, and Community Organizations.  

What stood out in the discovery process was the participants' observations about USADF's long history and focused commitment to providing pathways to prosperity for underserved communities in Africa. However, these could have been more effectively communicated on its public-facing site. The wealth and breadth of USADF's archives contained information about its programs, data, results, and success stories over 40 years. USADF stakeholders sought ways to bring those stories to the forefront by highlighting their relevance to the audience.

We conducted interviews and contextual inquiries and then created research-based personas and user journey maps. The inquiry landscape tried to address "How Might We" (HMW) questions. 

1. How Might We deliver value to USADF's current and future audiences?
2. How can we improve the discovery of USADF information online and help people follow appropriate pathways?

Qualitative outputs from Interviews and Working Groups allowed us to document user behaviors, thoughts, and emotions over time to understand the USADF audience journey. In addition, candid reactions from users when accomplishing tasks and their pain points were visualized and sketched to build optimal Journey Maps.

Designing for harmonious Communication and Storytelling 

Our design studio developed several prototypes that empowered the site audience by engaging and taking a role in their interaction with the USADF site. The creative team wanted to deliver compelling Visual narration and Storytelling. This was accomplished by presenting the site visitors with video and using brilliantly large photos that conveyed the impact stories. 

The audience often looked up briefing sheets in the "Where We Work" section. We realized that the map area presented an excellent opportunity to showcase USADF projects and project funding by country. Therefore, we conceived the map section on the landing page to employ parallax scrolling for enhanced user engagement. The ASSYST Creative Team chose the Parallax scrolling approach for the front end, which created a sense of depth for the USADF's mission, vision, and messaging. This powerful approach was chosen since it is engaging and helps progressively raise and elevate the user's interest in the content and feel inspired. 

Since parallax uses multiple layers that are scrolled over, having the first layer as static and the subsequent layers employ 3D effects in a sequence not only brings an element of surprise and engagement but also allows the site audience to take an active role in their interaction when project data for the respective countries are presented. 

Furthermore, to serve visitors’ intent, the site deserves a consistent experience across all parts of the site on any device. Our design used a mobile-first approach and a color palette that provides smooth transitions between pages. This approach helped to demonstrate USADF's clear purpose and enhance the user experience. Through parallax scrolling, we showcased a range of content elements for each theme in a way that makes an impact. In addition, the design enabled the flow of animation to provide a frictionless browsing experience.   

With every sprint walk-through, we continuously tested the site’s functionality for usability with the user community. A balance of moderated and non-moderated efforts contributes to the design iterations. The Usability Testing feedback results were added to the Product Backlog for progressive refinements with each release. Thus, the usability testing directly contributed to prioritizing the backlog that results from formative research.

HCD Impact and Outcomes

The Human-Centered Design approach established and communicated a shared mission and vision across a diverse set of USADF stakeholders. This further helped to conceptualize, prototype, and test new ideas rapidly. The project presented an opportunity to adopt agile methods and tools for increased collaboration and creative problem solving. In addition, the iterative design process generated many qualitative and quantitative data to support shared decision-making and pave the way for future refinements.

Explore -  https://usadf.gov/ 

ASSYST Digital Transformation Services

ASSYST is a strategic partner for customers across the industry spectrum, including DoD, Federal, State, and Local Governments, Non-Profit organizations, and International Agencies. We implement user-centric platform solutions for websites, knowledge management systems, mobile apps, search-based portals, interactive toolkits, open data catalogs, data visualizations, and Chatbots.