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NASA

Website Redesign

Desktop mockup of NASA website homepage. Has slideshow with image of black hole.

Project Overview

Website redesign for NASA's homepage. Prioritizing information architecture to reorganize navigation and streamline content structure so that information is easy to access.

The Problem

NASA’s website has a lot of content that people want to access, but it is disorganized and the navigation is convoluted. This could cause users to have trouble finding the information they need, and possibly not wanting to use the site.

The Solution

Organize the content so that navigation is intuitive and the most important features are brought to the forefront.

Background

NASA, a global leader in space exploration, focuses on conducting research and expanding knowledge for the benefit of humanity. Additionally, they are leading missions and advancing space technologies such as electric propulsion and supersonic flight.

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The goal of this project involved restructuring content on the website to make it easier to navigate as well as modernizing the look and feel to match the innovative and forward thinking values embodied by NASA.

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This project was completed as a class assignment for the University of Oregon’s UX/UI Bootcamp.

Grey box with green stripe. Includes my role and team.
My Role

Lead UX Researcher, UX/UI Designer

Team

2 UX Researchers, 1 UX/UI Designer

Grey box with green stripe. Includes tools used.
Tools

Figma, Google Suite, Zoom, Trello, Slack, InVision

Grey box with green stripe. Includes timeline.
Timeline

5 weeks

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April - May 2022

Design Process
Design process - discover phase icon

Discover

Design process - define group icon

Define

Design Process - ideate phase icon

Ideate

Design Process - prototype icon

Prototype

Design process - test icon

Test

Card Sorting

After thoroughly reviewing the navigation and content of the existing website, we completed card sorting in order to determine the best organization for the main navigation, sub-navigation items, and footer.

Card Sorting. Shows sub-categories including Stem Engagement, Events, Virtual Guest Program, Request Exhibit, Request Speaker, and Launches and Landings under a main category of Engagement.

Housed STEM Engagement under new category, Engagement

Added new sub-categories

Card Sorting. Shows sub-categories such as Earth, Flight, Humans in Space, Moon to Mars, and Space Tech under a main category of Newsfeed

Reorganized topics in sub-navigation bar into the new Newsfeed category

Site Map

Our card sorting exercise informed the layout of the site map. The Missions and Galleries sections were well organized and we only made a few minor changes. However, we ended up restructuring most of the navigation as well as adding an Ultra Navigation.

NASA site map and information architecture. Shows navigation menu items of Missions, Galleries, Engagement, Newsfeed, About NASA with secondary navigation items, tertiary navigation items and footer.

Inspiration

NASA Mood Board. Images of astronauts and rockets. Features images from SpaceX and NASA redesign projects.

Desktop Mockups

Desktop mockup of NASA homepage. Slideshow with image of black hole.
Desktop mockup of NASA homepage. Latest in Space Tech. Shows space technology photos.
Desktop mockup of NASA homepage. Shows image of the space butterfly. Looks like an orange cloud.
Desktop mockup of NASA hompeage Climate. Shows map of the Great Barrier Reef.
Desktop mockup of NASA homepage. Shows images related to climate - snow depth, dust particles, and corn crops.
NASA Desktop Mockup of homepage. Shows NASA partners including Space X, Blue Origin, European Space Agency, and United Nations Office for Outerspace Affairs.

Mobile Mockups

Mobile mockup of NASA homepage. Slideshow with image of black hole.
Desktop mockup of NASA homepage. Latest in Space Tech. Shows space technology photos.
Mobile mockup of NASA homepage. Shows space travel, computing, and instruments technology
Desktop mockup of NASA homepage. Shows image of the space butterfly. Looks like an orange cloud.
Desktop mockup of NASA hompeage Climate. Shows map of the Great Barrier Reef.
NASA Desktop Mockup of homepage. Shows NASA partners including Space X, Blue Origin, European Space Agency, and United Nations Office for Outerspace Affairs.

Final Thoughts

Information architecture is a key part of the redesign process. It is crucial to find issues related to navigation, content structure/hierarchy, and design elements prior to creating a prototype. Based on the Usability Tests at the end of the project, I believe my partner and I successfully reorganized the navigation and structure of the site as users were able to successfully find information in the navigation and body of the website.

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If there were more time for this project, I would like to add pages under the Missions and Galleries sections, add an educational resources section on the homepage, and reformat the Latest in Space Tech section so that it horizontally scrolls (mobile version).

Thank you!
Galaxy with orange, blue, purple and yellow colors. Dark background in space.
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