Data interpretation: FIRST STREET FOUNDATION
Brand Strategy | Interaction Design | B2C | Client
HOW might the SITE User experience (UX) AND BRAND TELL THE STORY OF A HOME’S RISK?
First Street Foundation is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) research and technology group based in Brooklyn, NY, whose mission is to make climate risk accessible, easy to understand and actionable for individuals, governments, and industry. Risk Factor® is a free online tool created by First Street Foundation that makes it easy to find and visualize a property's past, current, and future climate risk. Initially starting with Flood Factor, Risk Factor expanded to include other climate risks such as fire and heat.
We designed the UX for 3 types of pages on the Risk Factor site along with different types of modules that could exist to demonstrate different types of perils. In conjunction with this, the visual design team created a brand identity for Risk Factor that would best match the UX of the site.
Design Brief
Design the branding and layout for the homepage, property page, locality page, as well as design interactive modules that will adapt to the expansion of Risk Factor.
Role & Contribution
Led team (2 experience designers, 2 visual designers) through UX mapping, information architecture, ideation, refinement, and testing.
Deliverables
UX for site homepage, property pages, locality pages, and modules
Design System (collaboration with Visual Design team)/ brand kit
Overview
Outcomes
125% increase in site visits over course of a year
110% increase in visits from partner sites
01. Designing with the right audience in mind
02. Creating a system that is evergreen and is able to adapt to match Risk Factor’s growth
03. Prioritization to ensure we are focused on what is most useful in the short term and adaptable for the long term
3 Big Takeaways
Flood Factor’s promotion as a tool, rather than a cause, aided in its adoption. The tool is used by a large range of individuals from research entities to individuals. To accommodate for the variety of users, we decided to design for the simplest user in mind in order to make it a friendly and delightful experience for anyone who comes across the site. We decided to design for the homebuyers and homeowners as our primary audience.
The home page, locality page, and property page emphasize on telling the story behind each peril as it also exists as a scalable peril-specific experience on locality and property pages.
01. Designing with the right audience in mind
Homepage layout iterations
Property page layout iterations
Locality page feature
Locality page feature
Locality page feature
02. Creating a system that is evergreen and is able to adapt to match Risk Factor’s growth
Any work done for Risk Factor should maintain the informative, credible, and personalized nature that existed with Flood Factor. The Risk Factor site and brand should have a distinctive and ownable look that is adaptable for future perils as the tool scales and is able to offer more insight across additional climate perils.
From a brand perspective, the logo must account for multiple perils with an emphasis on “Factor”, the color palette cannot conflict with the risk scale and is able to be applied to a wide array of perils, the typeface must be simple, web friendly, reasonably prices, and the score tile must work with at least 3 peril score with clear distinction to which peril they represent.
The final palette was tested for contrast between peril levels to ensure accessibility and general usability.
03. Prioritization to ensure we are focused on what is most useful in the short term and adaptable for the long term
As more perils get added in the future, the navigation between new pages ensure ease and clarity. In addition, to make sure the developer team from Risk Factor do not need to do a complete website re-design, we analyzed the grid structure of the pages and the interactive modules and helped create a release roadmap strategy to prioritize development.
Analysis and audit of existing site
Re-working of site with new brand implementation
Please reach out for a full project process walkthrough!
Email at e.soosea@gmail.com