Overview
Project Description
This engagement between Jumping Elephants and the Canadian Trade Commissioner Service (TCS) aimed to standardize web content and enhance the navigational experience of the TCS website. The primary objective was to streamline the process of web content creation and publishing, ensuring that crucial resources and information were readily available to Canadian businesses seeking international opportunities.
What is Global Affairs Canada?
Global Affairs Canada is the department of the Canadian government responsible for international trade, with a focus on promoting Canadian interests and values on the global market. Within Global Affairs Canada, the Canadian Trade Commissioner Service (TCS) plays a crucial role in helping Canadian businesses expand into international markets, offering strategic guidance, market intelligence, and practical support to facilitate global trade.
Design Challenge and Deliverables
Given the geographical dispersion of Trade Commissioners, their lack of consistent communication resulted in discrepancies and inefficiencies in web content creation and publishing processes across the TCS platform. Collaboration with TCS stakeholders was crucial to identify these issues and develop a standardized process and design system to ensure content creation and publishing remained consistent, regardless of their content creator’s location.
Process Mapping & Information Architecture
Our project kicked off with intensive collaboration with key TCS stakeholders and Trade Commissioners stationed in various countries. The insights collected during this collaboration were used to create a series of process maps. The Jumping Elephants team meticulously documented the TCS website's existing content creation and publishing processes. This process mapping exercise enabled us to visualize and comprehend the complex workflows within the organization.
Information Architecture & Wireframe Development
Once our team and the TCS stakeholders were aligned on the desired changes and improvements to the content creation and publishing processes, I used the insight gathered to create wireframes that captured the enhanced information architecture. To ensure that this information architecture was optimized for user-friendliness and clarity, I conducted Treejack testing. The insights from this testing would build confidence in the navigational efficiency of our Information Architecture. Based on the results of this testing, we refined and rearranged the information architecture, making it more intuitive and user-centered. Once the Jumping Elephants team received sign-off on the Information Architecture model, this structure was integrated into wireframes. These wireframes were the first step of establishing a consistent structure of web content across various countries.
High Fidelity Mockups
The mockup phase served to integrate toolbox design elements into the TCS Web UI. The mockups offered a more modern look and feel compared to the existing TCS web content. They also maintained the updated structure of Information Architecture. In this process, we not only enhanced the website's modern aesthetics but also strictly adhered to federal design and accessibility guidelines.
Summary & Conclusion
This engagement with the Canadian Trade Commissioner Service (TCS) aimed to standardize web content and enhance user navigation on the TCS website. We addressed inconistancies of content between countries by creating a standardized information architecture, validated through Treejack testing. This comprehensive approach aimed to deliver a seamless and efficient user experience, advancing the TCS's mission under Global Affairs Canada.