Forest Service Research & Development (R&D)

I want to start off this section by saying the work done in this role is covered under multiple NDAs.  I can only enclose certain details without getting too specific. I apologize for the lack of images, I am not authorized to show them to the public.

When starting  at Dynamo on my very first contract I was nervous but ready to prove myself as a designer.
 
The client was the R&D division of the Forest Service, which did have a web presence, but they were looking to improve their UX/UI to fit modern accessibility requirements as well as look and feel of the site. The team was made up of a Scrum Master, Business Analyst, UX/UI Designer (Me), and two Developers. Being the solo UX Designer I had to fill many shoes within design, which was daunting at first, but I was ready for this challenge. 
 
The first thing I did when on the project was get familiar  with the US Government's design system. The Forest Service  primarily  uses the United States Web Design System (USWDS), which provides guidance on font, color, components, layout, and accessibility. There is also Section 508, which is the main set of accessibility requirements  from the government. These two resources proved to be  crucial to learn at least the basics of   as they would guide design decisions and help justify those decisions to stakeholders.
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At the projects inception the R&D website was using basic HTML elements with very little CSS and JavaScript, making it feel very outdated. Before gathering design requirements I focused on the structure of the website. I worked with  the main stakeholders of the project to find what sections of the site are most useful to the average user.  The user base for this project was all internal Forest Service employees. They explained to me that the users go to this website for information. It may be to look up information, or to upload new information. As a result of this I was able to build a simple Information Architecture (IA) for the R&D website that  was focused on providing information first and providing assistance second. The IA ran through a few rounds of iteration between the stakeholders and I but we ended on a solid path forward. Next up was to create the branding.
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Branding for the Forest Service was already 95% established but there were still some important design decisions to be made. I started building the style guide for the website using the Forest Service's design elements, which included primary and secondary colors and the Forest Service Logo. The rest of the style guide  was up to me to find the right elements, this is where the USWDS guide came in handy. I was able to reference the guide to help dictate the appropriate font, accent colors, iconography, and components. I was able to justify these decisions by referencing USWDS which made the customer feel comfortable and confident that this is a solid style guide to use as the foundation for the new website. Now  it was time to move to low-fidelity mockups.
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My method with low-fidelity mockups is to get as many ideas as possible into a design software and see what resonates the most with the stakeholders. My design tool at this point was Adobe XD, there were no requirements for what to use and I was most comfortable with this tool. In XD I utilized the IA, style guide, and USWDS to develop multiple landing page mockups within  a week. Now I wanted to get the stakeholders opinion on the mockups. Since these were low fidelity mockups I thought it would be best  to share the PDFs with the stakeholders through a design presentation rather than through an email. The presentation allowed me to fully express my design decisions and gather feedback instantly. We landed on a design that the stakeholder felt was the most flexible and would communicate the information best to the user.  I had all the information I needed at this point to create a high-fidelity mockup which was eventually made into a prototype.
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This is where I got the most excited as it was time to make this concept feel like a real product. Utilizing XD's prototyping software I was able to build a high-fidelity mockup that was referencing real information. I wanted to give the best possible feel for how the real website would act, so I created workflows to represent certain actions a user could take. This included actions like using a navigation dropdown, using the keyword search, cycling through a carousel, hovering over an article, etc. These workflows ended up highlighting what pages also needed mocked up; search results, news, news article detailed view, research highlights, products, & about us. All of these pages had to go through the same process as the landing page, which did take about two/three weeks to get through the rounds of design, iteration, and approval.  I was able to have a fully built high-fidelity prototype within a month  of starting on the project that was ready to be reviewed by the stakeholders.
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Reviewing the prototype with the stakeholders took a few different forms. I started off highlighting the prototype in a design presentation with stakeholders. This did bring forward some immediate iteration requests. Adobe XD's prototyping software allowed me to then share the link to the prototype with the same stakeholders for them to click around and go through the same workflows I just walked them through. I instructed them to  note down any findings that they come across  while navigating through the prototype and to send me the feedback by a certain date. By far this was the most effective way of getting feedback not only from the stakeholders but from their constituents as well.  Since I did not have any funding in the contract for UX research this was about as  close to user testing as  I was able to get. Even though this was not ideal, it still brought forward a lot of great insight as to what can be improved. I was able to make these changes to the prototype within the next week and essentially repeated the same review process. I met with stakeholders, walked them through the changes, gathered feedback, then implemented that feedback into the design and repeated that until the stakeholders felt comfortable with the design. The designs were ready for development at this point.
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Sharing the designs with developers was made very easy using Adobe XD's sharing feature. Similar to the prototyping software used to gather stakeholder feedback, there is a dev mode within the prototype that showed all the technical details needed for a developer to create an identical look and feel. Developers used this tool to build out the pages which after they were done would be sent to me for design review to make sure they didn't miss anything. I would review the built pages, note changes to be made, and send them back to developers until the site looked identical to the mockups. This continued until the website contained all the page types that are required for launch, then the content managers were allowed to go into the site and start migrating content. This process took months as there was content dating back to the Forest Service R&D's inception that needed to be merged. Thousands of pages later we were ready for site launch. 
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In May 2022 we launched the Forest Service R&D website. The website received raving reviews from users and stakeholders alike. From this point on users would utilize the feedback form to submit design requests/improvements that we would implement from time to time depending on the stakeholders opinion of the request. This project lasted until April 2025. It was canceled due to shifting federal priorities and budget realignments that affected ongoing support for certain programs. This decision reflects broader funding changes across agencies and is not related to the performance or outcomes of the work delivered. I was incredibly sad to see all the hard work from the years prior be halted due to budgeting. However, this is how contracting goes in the federal space from what I was told.

TLDR: 

Starting as the solo UX designer on my first federal contract, I quickly learned to wear multiple hats and lean heavily on frameworks like USWDS and Section 508 to build accessible, modern designs. I guided the full UX process—from information architecture to branding to high-fidelity prototyping—using Adobe XD, and led iterative feedback sessions with stakeholders to shape a well-received internal site. We launched in May 2022, and I continued refining the experience based on user feedback until the contract ended in April 2025.

Lessons Learned:​

• Being the only UX designer on the team meant I had to take on many roles; researcher, IA architect, visual designer, and even light stakeholder manager. It was challenging, but it showed me how resourceful and adaptable I could be when stepping into uncharted territory. It also emphasized the importance of cross-functional collaboration.

• Starting with the Information Architecture before jumping into visual design was the right move. It ensured the site would be functional and user-friendly first, which made the design work more strategic rather than purely stylistic. Getting stakeholder alignment on the structure early also reduced major pivots later in the project.

• I learned that stakeholder engagement is most productive when it’s active. Walking through mockups in real time allowed me to explain the thinking behind the designs, answer questions immediately, and steer feedback sessions toward constructive outcomes. This beat the typical email-and-wait cycle by a mile.

• Due to funding limitations, we couldn’t conduct formal UX research. But by building realistic, interactive prototypes and encouraging stakeholders and their users to explore them, I was able to simulate a lightweight testing environment. This iterative, feedback-driven approach still uncovered valuable insights and improvements.

• Adobe XD’s developer handoff mode proved essential. It created a shared language between design and development, making it easier to maintain consistency and reducing back-and-forth during implementation. I learned how vital the right tools are to bridging the design-dev handoff process.

• Even after launch, we continued to refine the product based on feedback through a request form. This taught me that in public service design, the product should always be evolving based on user needs and that launching a website is just the beginning of its life cycle.