The California Department of Insurance (CDI) was created in 1868 as part of a national system of state-based insurance regulation. The California Department of Insurance is the consumer protection agency for the nation's largest insurance marketplace and safeguards all of the state’s consumers by fairly regulating the insurance industry.
The California Department of Insurance website was notorious for its lack of consistency and overwhelming amount of dense information throughout the website. The information architecture was hard to navigate and it felt impossible to file an insurance complaint. One of the main issues was color accessibility. Due to the website being all the same color, many users had a hard time understanding the hierarchy of sections, especially on the homepage.
For this website re-design, we focused on creating an efficient, simple, and dependable solution to help users better understand who the Department of Insurance are, what their mission is, and how users can best utilize their services.
Redesign the website with better information architecture and organize the site map
Figma
Google Drive
Zoom
Our biggest takeaways from our heuristic evaluation were the lack of hierarchy throughout the home page. Most notably, the original color palette of the website did not fall under the Level AA Website Accessibility and Design Compliance standard. Also, the navigation bar was filled with many sub-tabs that made filing a complaint exremely difficult.
After analyzing our heuristic evaluation, we were able to develop a user path that involves filing a complaint. During this process, we prioritized including key pages that were essential to the filing process.
One of the main functions of the website we focused on was improving the complaint filing process. When we first browsed the website, it was almost impossible to file one. By looking at other government websites, we were able to see the commonalities in their navigation and had a better understanding of how we should organize the California Department of Insurance website. Below is a site map that displays the new and improved navigation flow throughout the website.
When creating the mood board, we were seeking inspiration from welcoming and professional images. We gathered images of ideas for the illustrations on the navigation bar and throughout the website. In seeing all of the images put together, we were able to focus on the final aesthetic - simple, enticing, and helpful.
Next, we started sketching out rough drafts of the desktop and mobile layout for the California Department of Insurance’s home page and the process of filing a complaint on their website. The focal point of brainstorming these design ideas centered around the users’ necessities.
A style tile was created to reflect the new branding of the California Department of Insurance. The style tile includes their new color palette, images, typography, illustrations, and logos.
Task 1 success rate: 83%
2 out of 5 users were confused during Task 1
Some users did not want to read all of the sub tabs in the navigation, so it took multiple attempts to find the 'File a Complaint' button.
Task 2 success rate: 100%
0 out of 5 users were confused during Task 2
This revamped section received more positive feedback in comparison to the original website layout.
Keep iterating
There is always room for improvement. If the project were to continue, my team and I would conduct more user tests to indicate how we can further improve our users’ experiences.
Speak up
There were many times when my team had to make a difficult decision. Throughout this project, I gained the confidence to speak up and share my solutions to help contribute to team discussions.
Continuously learn new things
Throughout the project, I was able to further develop my skills on Figma and found myself motivated to learn something new about the software every time I opened it. I hope to apply this mindset to future projects to continue my growth as a designer.
