Project Brief

The Mississippi Secretary of State reached out to Mississippi Interactive in late 2013 to contract us to completely redesign their website.

The main goals for the redesign were to:

• Improve the overall performance of the site
• Surface the most-requested content
• Simplify the information architecture to improve overall navigation
• Create a fully responsive site that was usable down to the smallest viewport
• Migrate the site into the SharePoint content management system to streamline production and maintenance

Content Audit

The project started off with a comprehensive content audit of every page in the site. I analyzed hundreds of pages of hand-written notes that were provided by the different department heads into a plan of action for a new structure. Working with a project manager, we met with each assistant Secretary of State to go over content and functional goals for their specific areas.

Card Sorting Exercise

I conducted an online card sorting exercise with the different stakeholders using Optimal Sort. This exercise, along with the stakeholder interviews and the content audit, led to a list of recommendations for improvement:

• Create a landing page for each department that surfaced important contacts and content
• Provide an easy method for the sites' content to be updated and maintained by the SOS staff
• Create a responsive, future-forward design
• Build an admin to allow the communications team to easily add press releases on the fly

SharePoint Integration

As the SharePoint subject matter expert, I built the site in HTML/CSS/JS and then integrated that code within SharePoint 2010. I built new masterpages, page layouts, custom lists, and data view webparts to surface list data throughout the site. I also created an interactive form using a third-party form webpart that connects to a custom workflow that I wrote.

View the technical case study I published on my SharePoint for Designers blog.

Results

Launched Summer 2014, I designed a fresh look that still reflected the Secretary's branding while being modern and responsive.

The new site has many new features, is mobile-optimized, and features Google Custom Search with several Best Bets loaded to optimize search results. The SharePoint integration allows the site to be easily updated by non-technical staff, assuring that the site is always up to date to provide best in class content to users.

Awards

The site has won 2 national design awards: a Gold Hermes award and a Silver Award of Distinction for the Home page from the Communicator awards.

View Deliverables

Wireframe of landing page

Above: I designed a wireframe for the site that was used to gain buy-in for the overall layout.

Functional Specification Excerpt

Above: Excerpt from specifications I wrote for an admin app that allows SOS staff to easily add press releases from a web-based interface that does not require direct access to SharePoint

Example of a custom data view web part page

Above: In SharePoint, I created a custom list and a custom data view web part to organize and display all of the legal enforcement actions issued by the SOS office. SOS staff updates an Excel-like list and that data feeds the web parts that make up this page.

Another example of a data view webpart-based page

Above: I was able to create a full fees and forms directory using SharePoint lists and data view web parts. The columns are user sortable and the content is all fed from a custom list. SOS staff never needs to directly edit this page.

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