A self-initiated redesign of a government website. They won’t use it. But imagine if they did.
Government websites exist in a special category of design purgatory — technically functional, visually punishing, and seemingly immune to improvement. The FCC site was no exception. I wanted to see what would happen if someone actually tried.
This was a self-initiated student project focused on three things: understanding how real users navigate the site, fixing the information architecture, and pushing the visual identity somewhere it had never been. Spoiler: .gov sites don’t have to look like they were designed in 2003.
DISCOVER
Where Does It Hurt?
Before redesigning anything, I needed to understand what was actually broken. Three questions guided the initial research:
- How easy is it for users to navigate the site?
- Is the content readable and accessible to average users?
- What are the most common tasks, and how painful are they to complete?
I focused on two tasks that real users actually need to do: File a Complaint and File a Public Comment. Both became the basis for redlining and usability testing.
Redline
I screenshotted every top-level navigation page and annotated what each element did, measuring it against Nielsen’s 10 usability heuristics. The problem that jumped out immediately was jargon. Industry-specific terminology was everywhere, used casually and without explanation, as if the average person filing a complaint about their internet provider was also a telecommunications attorney.
The redline made one thing clear: this redesign was going to live or die on information architecture.
Usability Testing
I conducted three usability tests and collaborated with peers who tested additional users. The tasks were simple in theory — file a complaint, file a public comment — but users consistently ran into the same three walls:
- Navigation confusion
- Poor content presentation
- A search function that returned 404 errors or nothing at all
Results were synthesized into an affinity diagram, then translated into a feature prioritization matrix. The goal was to identify the highest-impact improvements achievable within three weeks.
DEFINE
Getting Organized
With research done, it was time to define the user and restructure the site around them.
User Persona
Meet Josephine Clark, a 45-year-old high school graduate who just wants to file a complaint about her cable provider without needing a law degree to do it. She’s motivated by anxiety and uncertainty. She doesn’t know what a “proceeding” is and shouldn’t have to.
The redesign needed to serve Josephine, not telecommunications professionals.
New Sitemap
I performed a full card sort of every page and category on the existing site. The result was a cleaner, simpler sitemap that stripped out jargon, eliminated redundant pages, and organized content around what users actually need rather than how the agency internally categorizes things.
DEVELOP
Visual Identity and Prototype
Here’s where things got fun. Government sites don’t have to look like government sites. I pushed the visual identity as far as I could within the constraints of accessibility compliance, and the result is something that feels nothing like a .gov URL.
UI Style Tile
I built out the visual identity first, establishing a color palette that was fully WCAG 2.0 compliant while still having actual personality. Every component was tested for contrast ratios. Looking good and being accessible aren’t mutually exclusive, despite what most government web teams seem to believe.
Prototype Iteration
Prototyping was where the visual identity met functionality. I worked through multiple homepage iterations, running informal feedback sessions after each round and refining based on what I heard. The progression from low to high fidelity was deliberate — no skipping steps.
Filing a Complaint
One of the most broken flows on the original site was filing a complaint. My solution was simple: one step per page. Break the process into digestible chunks, reduce cognitive load, and make it feel less like filing a tax return and more like using a modern web app.
Navigation Iterations
Navigation was its own battle. My initial design used a dropdown menu, which tested terribly. Users struggled with hover states and kept losing their place. The feedback was clear enough that I scrapped it entirely and rebuilt it as a full-screen menu triggered by a button click. Sometimes the right answer is the simpler one.
Mobile Prototype
Once the desktop mockup was solid, the mobile version came together quickly. The layout adapted cleanly and the simplified navigation worked even better on smaller screens.
The FCC will almost certainly never use any of this. But if they ever decide to stop making their users suffer, they know where to find me.