The Problem
Since 1992, the Innocence Project has been at the forefront of criminal justice reform, using DNA and other scientific advancements to reverse wrongful convictions.
In 2021, the team at Innocence Project realized that their website made it difficult for visitors to grasp the full breadth of Innocence Project’s efforts, muddying their core message. The Understanding Group was engaged to help them redesign the information architecture of the site.
Our Approach
TUG approaches projects by first understanding what our clients want to accomplish. Then we create models to help stakeholders align around what “good” means in the context of their site, and to clarify the gaps between what they have today and what they want. Finally, we create a specification that maps the new structure of the site to align to this vision.
We learn how to make these models through:
direct analysis of the site
stakeholder interviews, and
user research, both before our design phase and after our preliminary conceptual model.
The Link Map below is one of the models we created. It shows shows how siloed the site was, with very limited cross-linking. This siloed information model wasn’t in alignment with the integrated messaging the Innocence Project was trying to achieve.
Link Map of the original Innocence Project site showing how little interlinking there was between sections. Links within the circle show cross-linking, while the many links pointing within a section are listed outside the circle.
Pulling The Stories and Work Together
Through quantitative analysis, stakeholder interviews, and user research, TUG identified the major challenges to integrating the different aspects of the Innocence Project’s story. We first identified Archetypes that describe the reasons people visited the site, then depicted how the Archetypes can fit together to represent a coherent whole.
Archetype Distribution Model. This shows the major entry points into the website that people use to do work, and how the needs overlap by need.
A Coherent, Actionable Plan
TUG proposed a structural model, sitemap, and mobile-first prototype that drew together the threads of Innocent Project’s story in an intuitive and user-friendly way. We then tested our findings with a second round of user research against a mobile prototype to confirm the model.
Once it had been confirmed, the Innocence Project’s design team immediately got to work using recommendations and successfully implemented a new, focused site that could truly tell the story of their mission to the many audiences that they wanted to reach.
The Mobile Prototype for the Innocence Project website. Each part of the prototype was tied back to the Archetype conceptual model and detailed sitemaps so that the designers could fully understand the information intent of the model and apply it to their design and implementation decisions.
The Results
Architecture is not design, but done right it is key to helping designers make decisions that truly make a digital place work for its visitors. This project epitomizes that relationship, because while TUG did not make any specific design recommendations, its model for finding and sharing information was critical to the effective implementation of the website by the design team. The launched site was at once beautifully made and also mapped perfectly to the ways that Innocence Project’s users sought to understand the organization and its work.
“The overall navigation is way better on the new site and we’ve taken the opportunity to create a more bold and modern visual design.”
The Home Page of the revised Innocence Project Website
“We love it. It has made all the difference. You can find your way around the work we do and much of that is due to the updated navigation. Overall it is a vast improvement.”
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