Project Role
Creative Director, Information Architect

The Challenge
The National Archives and Records Administration maintains the largest online collection of images, documents and media files in the world. It is pursuing an aggressive digitization project that expands its library daily. While the range of materials available was impressive, the high-level interface for the website was confusing and unclear. Following a "list of links" structure the home page and main sections required users to scroll through long lists of content options. NARA requested a redesigned high-level interface that would incorporate the needs of its many departments and allows visitors to find information easily and quickly.

The Solution
Designing the new interface began with a series of workshops with the NARA department heads - sometimes with as many as 60 participants. The goal was to understand the internal structure of the organization and the inter-relationships between them and their online content. Based on these workshops and use statistics from the existing site, an information architecture highlighting the most used site sections was devised. It was also recommended that a "Using the Archives" section was featured that helped novice users find what they were looking for and get online assistance.

The design templates for the home page and sections also included a "Current Exhibits" area that allowed department heads to highlight new or important collections that had recently gone online. This area was particularly geared towards students and teachers using the site as an educational resource.

Deliverables
Design Guideline Document
Design Templates

3 on the Bund
National Archives
Greg Girard
Biche de Bere
Navigant Vacations


Web Clients

Agricultural Bank of China
Travel Technologies Group
Smithsonian Institute
Library of Congress
American Airlines
HK Jockey Club
Project Hope
JP Morgan
Dupont
Tiens