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Background
The mission of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety
Administration (FMCSA) is to reduce crashes, injuries,
and fatalities involving large buses and trucks. The agency
works closely with law enforcement and industry to
improve bus and truck safety through regulation, education,
and technology. While a Web site alone can't guarantee
safety on the roads, FMCSA recognizes the need to
make its information and policies easy to find.
The Challenge: hard to find information
The main FMCSA Web site contained several sub-sites,
developed independently of each other on an "as needed"
basis. These sub-sites had different designs, information
architecture, and lacked consistency in how they operated.
This made critical information hard to find, leading to
poor user experience.
FMCSA engaged HFI on a Web site redesign to address:
- Information Architecture: can users find information
on the site?
- Detailed Design: can users interact with information
once they find it?
- Future Growth: will the site architecture accommodate
new content and functionality?
HFI's approach: citizen-centric architecture
HFI guided the project with a user-centered design
approach, including:
- review of user feedback (server logs, surveys,
webmaster emails, etc.)
- user research and task analysis
- usability testing
- prototyping and design refinement
Benefits: users find information easily
The result was a new citizen-centric architecture and
predictable navigation structure, based on users' own
vocabulary for category names and labels. By creating
reusable page-design templates, ongoing site development
and maintenance were also streamlined. Drivers, trucking
companies, and safety experts all shared many positive comments about the improved information density,
categorization, and visual design. Frequently-used content
is now easier to find:
- weight and load restrictions
- driver drug and alcohol testing
- licensing and insurance
- driving time limitations
- vehicle standards and inspections
Best of all, usability test participants were twice as successful
at finding information with the new design (90%) compared
to the old site (45%). FMCSA continues to inculcate
usability principles as its Web site "motors" right along!
FMCSA home page before (top) and after (bottom)
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