Colorado Department of Higher Education
Connecting Coloradans to Education, Careers, and Resources
Various agencies within the Colorado state Government were running digital solutions disparately, creating a confusing experience for residents. The Colorado Department of Higher Education brought in my team to faciliate the design, development, and launch of a platform to aggregate resources like educational opportunities, career planning, and unemployment.
We had six months to launch an MVP of this new platform. Due to funding and the ambitious timeline, the scope was adjusted to only cover services provided by the Colorado Department of Higher Education and the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment.
Accessing state provided resources was confusing for Colorado residents due to the disparate nature of state websites and operations. If Colorado residents used one of these sites, it was unlikely that they would return.
The mission was to create an experience that wove all of these state agencies together into one that Colorado residents would come back to time and time again, throughout their lifetime. We needed to create a simple platform solution that would encourage Coloradans to seek their next step and explore the possible paths available to them.
The main focus for the initial release was to launch the Outcomes, Goals, and Steps view and the My Journey view.
My process for developing visual design solutions involved analysis of applications with similar functionality; productivity (task apps), education (language, vocabulary learning), and data visualization (banking).
After researching a wide breadth of competitors, my goal was to ensure the resulting application was familiar, trustworthy, and approachable.
I worked closely with the Creative Director, Engineering Manager, and state stakeholders to determine essential user flows to build into the initial launch. We had two primary personas: the high school student looking into their next steps, and the professional looking to transition careers. At first, the requirements were vague and the paths our primary personas might take had little in common, revealing our number one challenge on this project: content.
We quickly realized we needed to design a structure that would support many different personas and the pathways they might take.
I collaborated with the Creative Director to determine essential user flows we would focus on during the initial launch of My Colorado Journey. I was responsible for working with the team to help define core feature architecture and logic. We worked with a partner agency whose brand guidelines we would follow. While the architecture of the app was being determined, I developed visual design solutions that aligned with their brand.
The main focus for the initial release was to launch the Outcomes, Goals, and Steps view and the My Journey view.
My process for developing visual design solutions involved analysis of applications with similar functionality; productivity (task apps), education (language, vocabulary learning), and data visualization (banking).
After researching a wide breadth of competitors, my goal was to ensure the resulting application was familiar, trustworthy, and approachable.
I worked closely with the Creative Director, Engineering Manager, and state stakeholders to determine essential user flows to build into the initial launch. We had two primary personas: the high school student looking into their next steps, and the professional looking to transition careers. At first, the requirements were vague and the paths our primary personas might take had little in common, revealing our number one challenge on this project: content.
We quickly realized we needed to design a structure that would support many different personas and the pathways they might take.
I collaborated with the Creative Director to determine essential user flows we would focus on during the initial launch of My Colorado Journey. I was responsible for working with the team to help define core feature architecture and logic. We worked with a partner agency whose brand guidelines we would follow. While the architecture of the app was being determined, I developed visual design solutions that aligned with their brand.
The main focus for the initial release was to launch the Outcomes, Goals, and Steps view and the My Journey view.
My process for developing visual design solutions involved analysis of applications with similar functionality; productivity (task apps), education (language, vocabulary learning), and data visualization (banking).
After researching a wide breadth of competitors, my goal was to ensure the resulting application was familiar, trustworthy, and approachable.
I worked closely with the Creative Director, Engineering Manager, and state stakeholders to determine essential user flows to build into the initial launch. We had two primary personas: the high school student looking into their next steps, and the professional looking to transition careers. At first, the requirements were vague and the paths our primary personas might take had little in common, revealing our number one challenge on this project: content.
We quickly realized we needed to design a structure that would support many different personas and the pathways they might take.
I collaborated with the Creative Director to determine essential user flows we would focus on during the initial launch of My Colorado Journey. I was responsible for working with the team to help define core feature architecture and logic. We worked with a partner agency whose brand guidelines we would follow. While the architecture of the app was being determined, I developed visual design solutions that aligned with their brand.
- Persona Definition
- User Flow Diagramming
- Wireframing
- Feature Solutions
- Brand Analysis
- Visual Design Exploration
- Design System Development
