NSW Gov directory is a list of different agencies within NSW government. Service NSW is the 'front door' of the NSW government. Hence, Service NSW aims to provide easy access to all of said Agencies. On the current Gov directory listing page it is difficult for customers to find their way. This is due to a variety of reasons, such as obscure portfolio names or the length of time it takes to scroll through the alphabetical listing.
Problem specification:
As a user I would like to easily find any government agency quickly and browse their website. It is also important to have the contact number or basic information page.
Task: add a search box to the NSW government directory that only searches the directory.
Acceptance criteria: search results appear on the same page, below the search box. Search results are filtered for Gov directory. Search results fields include: title, website, and a phone number.
Solution simplification:
While the problem appeared simple at first, it required a number of divergent design solution experiments. After a series of discussions with my team mates and other relevant stakeholders, we settled on a search bar solution. However we wanted to make sure the search bar only displayed gov directory results. My major accomplishment from this project was making sure the solution was as straightforward as possible, even when some entries had varied listing information.
From initial design brief and discussion with the my manager I was wondering how we can research relevant design options from other digital products. I approached the content team to gather more data on the Gov directory visits and patterns. To discover and understand customer behaviour I started screening potential design solutions. Once I came back to the team with various options I had a number of robust discussions on my Figma design file.
From initial feedback from the design team I was wondering how it will look after adding a search bar when a customer enters an incorrect or misspelled word. I also designed multiple error screens to showcase that potential outcome.
Having various feedback from content and design team my manager has suggested me to going back to the problem to define the design. Then apply the convergence approach to design solution. It was a great learning these kinds of design methods and techniques to help me action radically different feedback from different design teams.
This project has been received well feedback from principle content designer and senior product managers. As well as appreciated by internal and external stakeholders.
