makes it easy to build digital services that meet the needs of Californians
For decades, the State of California's digital ecosystem has been inconsistent, complex, and a maintenance burden on tax payers.
There are over 300+ ca.gov websites and services all built to different design specifications.
This has created a user experience that is mediocre and unsatisfying.
As Product Manager, I led a small team of UX researchers, content & visual designers, and developers at The Office of Data Innovation (ODI) in:
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stakeholder, vision, & mission alignment
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discovery
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UX research
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content & visual design
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beta launch strategy
This was an intensive exercise in navigating political complexities while staying focused on serving Californians.
I inherited a dysfunctional, competitive landscape between ODI and the California Department of Technology (CDT). This needed to be addressed at the start of the project because CDT acted as gatekeeper to a successful launch.
I invited top directors and stakeholders from CDT to help assemble a cross departmental team that would act as one: The California Design System team. This ensured maximum buy-in, good will, and an array of complementary skills from both departments
ODI had an unorganized, nascent design culture. Whereas, CDT had a non-existent design culture, instead focused on brute engineering power.
Reconciling this difference started with establishing intentions before operations. I decided to implement ODI's first Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion effort tailored to a collaborative design culture.
The team was both being stretched by a constrained timeline, the needs of other projects, and ODI's own staffing pressures amidst an internal reorganization effort.
I worked with the team to set baseline expectations that could be boosted by stretch goals. We ultimately decided on a "Beta" launch that would give the team room for refinement towards a full production launch.
A VIRTUOUS CYCLE
Design systems are built using a virtuous cycle of discovery and UX research through smaller, experimental projects. From these projects, a library of mature components is collected. The system is supplemented with foundational principles, content & style guides, and developer guides.
Balancing intentions and expectations helped calibrate the team towards an ethos and focus of serving Californians.
We were ready to start the operational work of designing and building the California Design System.
ODI built three websites that acted as testing grounds for experimental components:
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covid19.ca.gov
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cannabis.ca.gov
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drought.ca.gov
We pioneered the Page Feedback component through the covid19.ca.gov site to rapidly collect user feedback.
The Page Feedback component provided us a direct UX research line to see if users were able find what they were searching for on each site. We used feedback to iterate and refine our content & visual design.
We also used Ethn.io intercepts to create user surveys which we could followup on to schedule additional UX research interviews. Our research presented one universal sentiment:
"State of California websites feel inconsistent and hard to navigate."
The new website for the Department of Cannabis Control was used as a testing ground for deeper experiments:
- a consistent content & visual design template
- additional web components
- headless CMS architecture and static site generators
- accessibility improvements
As we tested and refined additional web components, we knew that performance and accessibility needed to also be improved.
Sparking joy in UX for Californians includes addressing those who use lower performance devices or live in low bandwidth regions.
Much of the state's websites are built on a monolithic structure. We were able to experiment with decoupled and headless architectures. We found headless architecture, coupled with static site generators, provided a 1.6x - 2x performance boosts for users on slower devices or living in low bandwidth regions.
Drought.ca.gov allowed us to collect additional user data and further refine our principles, components, and design & developer guides. With the user sentiment data we collected, we were able to prove to top stakeholders that a design system was an initiative that would improve UX for all Californians.
We were given the go ahead! With months of prep and experimentation under our belt, we had all of the building blocks. It was simply a matter of assembly and launch.
As we sprinted towards beta launch, we realized one vital UX piece was missing.
How do we onboard users to the new design system?
We needed to onboard stakeholders, designers, and developers. We knew many designers and developers were familiar with various design systems, but this was a new initiative for government stakeholders. There needed to be a dual onboarding flow.
We used the landing page as a learning center for stakeholders.
We created a Get Started section for designers and developers.
The first ever published California Design System is a universal system that provides state digital teams with:
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low engineering dependencies and overhead
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easy systemwide updates
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components that work in many digital environments and contexts
Californians get:
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a consistent user experience
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high accessibility
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high performance in low bandwidth regions or on older, slower devices
This is a beautiful initiative in service to all Californians!