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1,000+ page DEQ website restructuring
1,000+ page DEQ website restructuring
Project
Project
Ongoing UX and content strategy work across DEQ’s 1,000+ page website.
Problem
Problem
Like many government sites, DEQ’s web content had grown around internal divisions, acronyms, and legacy page structures. That made it harder for people to find the answers they needed and led to repeated phone calls and staff time spent explaining what the website should have made obvious.
What I did
What I did
Used analytics, staff interviews, and admin feedback about common questions to identify where people were getting lost.
Restructured page groups and mini-sites around user tasks and likely search behavior, not internal department logic.
Built new landing pages for topics that previously had no clear front door, like PFAS and lead and copper pages for the Division of Drinking Water.
Created a layered approach where the top page could answer public search questions while deeper pages still served more technical users.
Repeated this process across teams over multiple years, often drastically reducing the number of phone calls teams received once the content was clearer.
What this says about how I work
What this says about how I work
I use my ability to empathise with both the user and the subject matter experts to identify and create missing front doors on a website, building them in a way that helps both the public and the experts without making either group do unnecessary work.
Collaborative IA process
Collaborative IA process
Project
Project
Collaborative information architecture work using analytics, stakeholder input, and real user questions.
Problem
Problem
Staff often knew their subject deeply but did not always know how to structure it for people who were seeing it for the first time. Without a shared process, pages could easily reflect internal habits instead of user needs.
What I did
What I did
Used analytics, staff interviews, and common question patterns to understand where people were getting stuck.
Ran collaborative exercises like card sorting to help stakeholders see structure more clearly and make decisions together.
Built or reshaped mini-homepages and page clusters so important topics had a clearer landing point.
Used my own outsider perspective as a stand-in for the user when technical teams were too close to the content to simplify it themselves.
Offered proposed information architecture as a starting point and as a demo for how content could be organized, to work with staff to refine.
What this says about how I work
What this says about how I work
Helping teams move from “we know this topic” to “we know how to organize this topic so someone else can use it.” is a transformative process I love guiding people through, and it all stems from empathy for the user and for the experts whose specialities don't leave them time to study UX.
Public-facing layers for technical topics
Public-facing layers for technical topics
Project
Project
Creating public-facing landing layers for technical topics like PFAS and lead and copper.
Problem
Problem
Technical program pages were often written for water systems or other expert audiences, but search engines were also bringing in members of the public with urgent, basic questions. Those users needed a clear entry point before they could make sense of the more technical content.
What I did
What I did
Created top-layer pages that answer the likely public questions first, based on common search behavior and admin feedback.
Kept those pages simple, then connected them to deeper content for technical audiences who needed more detail.
Used this model to help programs serve both public search traffic and expert users without flattening everything into one confusing page.
What this says about how I work
What this says about how I work
I think a lot about who arrives on a page first, what they get tripped up by, and what kind of page helps them feel oriented before they go deeper.
Recycle.utah.gov
Recycle.utah.gov
Project
Project
Recycle.utah.gov, a recycling information hub for Utah residents, with recycling info and a map of recycling faciliies.
Problem
Problem
Residents were trying to answer simple questions like “How do I recycle X?” but had to dig through program pages built for the regulated community to find answers. Many of the top searches on our site were some version of “how do I recycle X,” which told us people were coming in with task-based questions, not looking to learn our org chart.
What I did
What I did
Built the site around the real questions people ask, especially where to recycle something and how to find a nearby facility.
Used tabs to separate the experience into three clear paths: a recycling facilities map, practical recycling resources, and statewide recycling data.
Helped surface newer tools like the mobile-friendly recycling map and paired them with plain-language guidance and simple data storytelling.
Made sure the site could serve both residents and more technical audiences without forcing one group to wade through content written for the other.
What this says about how I work
What this says about how I work
I like reorganizing government information around what people came to do, especially when the old structure made them work too hard for basic answers.
Used oil website and QR code reporting system
Used oil website and QR code reporting system
Project
Project
Used oil website improvements and a QR code reporting system for used oil collection centers.
Problem
Problem
Before the digital system, collection centers like AutoZone, Walmart, and landfills had to handwrite information on paper every time someone dropped off oil. Then local health departments had to physically visit those sites every month to collect the papers. It was slow, messy, and a bad use of everyone’s time.
What I did
What I did
Helped improve the Used Oil site so residents and collection centers could find clearer instructions, location information, and program details online.
Supported the shift from paper tracking to a QR code digital reporting form that better matched how people actually interact with the program on site.
Developed a process that would work for all the players involved, not just the state, including local health departments and collection center staff, including filming and producing a training video for staff as a training solution for high turnover at those facilities.
Helped turn a system everyone tolerated into one people clearly preferred.
What this says about how I work
What this says about how I work
I pay attention to the hidden admin burden behind public programs and look for ways to simplify both the public-facing side and the reporting workflow behind it.
GreatSaltLake.utah.gov
GreatSaltLake.utah.gov
Project
Project
Information architecture, strategy, and web design for GreatSaltLake.utah.gov.
Problem
Problem
The site needed to hold many kinds of information about the Great Salt Lake for many kinds of users, including residents, researchers, and government audiences. The hardest challenge was not writing pages but creating an information architecture that could hold all of that without becoming chaotic.
What I did
What I did
Led card sorting with stakeholders from different subject areas to identify the major topic buckets the site should use.
Organized the site by topic rather than internal ownership so the structure would make sense from the outside looking in.
Helped decide what belonged on the homepage and what should live deeper in the site so first-time visitors would not be overwhelmed.
Created the web design to fit the decided upon information architecture, setting it up for a partner agency to maintain.
What this says about how I work
What this says about how I work
I love the “how should this whole landscape be organized?” level of web work, especially when a site needs to balance many audiences without losing clarity.
Layered regulatory guidance model
Layered regulatory guidance model
Project
Project
A layered guidance model for complex regulatory and grant content, first developed with Division of Drinking Water and later used with air quality incentive programs.
Problem
Problem
Technical teams often wrote program guidance the way they understood it, not the way applicants or outside users needed to move through it. That meant people faced dense pages, giant documents, or summaries that were still too technical to be truly useful.
What I did
What I did
Built a model that starts with simple step summaries, then offers deeper plain-language guidance, then links to full technical documents for reference.
First used that structure for lead and copper content in the Division of Drinking Water.
Later used the same model to coach air quality incentive teams that were launching new grant programs and needed help explaining them clearly to applicants.
Acted as a stand-in for the user by listening to SMEs, helping them refine their technical explanations, and then distilling the process into the real high-level steps a newcomer would need first.
What this says about how I work
What this says about how I work
I love standing in the space between subject matter expertise and user reality, then translating the process into layers that make sense at first glance and still hold up on a deeper read.
Backflow Certification Program website
Backflow Certification Program website
Project
Project
Backflow Certification Program website redesign and supporting system improvements.
Problem
Problem
Testers needed clear answers about requirements, trainings, exams, renewals, forms, and processes, but much of that information was not fully available online. Staff were making up the difference through phone calls and manual work.
What I did
What I did
Rebuilt the website so testers could find the full process, requirements, forms, and training information in one place.
Structured the content around the tasks users actually needed to complete instead of assuming they already understood the program.
Helped cut phone calls by about 70 percent by making the site a true self-service resource.
Paired the public-facing work with backend program improvements so the whole system became easier to run, saving taxpayer dollars.
What this says about how I work
What this says about how I work
When people keep calling with the same questions, I see that as a sign the system is failing them, and I want to fix the system rather than rely on repetitive staff labor.
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