FirstNet State Plan
Designed an accessible website for enrolling states into the first nationwide public safety broadband network.
What is FirstNet?
FirstNet is the first nationwide wireless broadband network designed for public safety and first responders, deployed through a partnership between FirstNet and AT&T.
My Role
Working alongside a UX manager and a visual designer, I developed content strategy and information architecture, created wireframes and prototypes, provided accessibility guidance, and supported visual quality assurance testing.
Challenge
Design an accessible website to communicate information about the new public safety network to each state to help them make their enrollment decision.
Design Approach
Discovery
FirstNet wasn’t ready to facilitate user research with state officials. We needed to find alternative ways to inform our design, so we ran several discovery workshops with FirstNet and AT&T stakeholders.
Content Strategy and IA
There was a lot of dense and technical content to sift through. I dug into it to identify themes, create architecture, and map content to the sitemap structure. We also facilitated a Writing for the Web training for the FirstNet team.
Modular Design
We were starting from scratch and we needed a flexible solution, so we focused on designing components that could be reused in multiple layouts. These first components became the foundation of the FirstNet style guide and the Sketch library, which we later used on several other FirstNet projects.
Accessibility
Closing my eyes and using VoiceOver on my Mac helped me empathize with people who use screen readers and understand how to better describe all on-screen elements and interactions. I annotated all final design comps to include language for aria-live labels and worked with developers and QA to ensure 508 compliance.
Solution
Focusing on state-specific information
We created a website that laid out all information in manageable chunks and supported target audiences in different ways: Governors could learn about the key benefits of joining FirstNet and how it would perform in their state, while state policy leads and public safety officials could dive deeper to learn about technical aspects of the network.
I leveraged personalized content on the homepage to provide state-specific information first. The banner heading greeted users based on their location and the blue feature card displayed state-specific network metrics and encouraged users to check their state’s coverage.
Visualizing Coverage with an Interactive Map
One of the key features of FistNet is its reliable coverage in all areas, including rural and urban. An interactive map allows users to view FirstNet coverage by location, type of network, and enrollment timeline. The stats under the map update based on filter selections and show the area and population covered. While the map was sourced through a Geolink API, we needed to design map controls and it took many iterations before we got a version that was usable, understandable, and easy to implement.
Connecting Users with FirstNet
Given the product goal was to enroll states and considering the technicality of the content, we wanted to encourage people to connect with their state consultants if they had any questions or wanted to proceed with enrollment. I made sure to include a prominent Contact CTA throughout the site, including basic content pages. Contact Us form had a minimal number of required fields so as not to discourage people from completing it. We also provided a way to connect with FirstNet via the Comment feature.
Outcome
Several months after the State Plan website launched, all U.S. states and territories enrolled in FirstNet. FirstNet recognized our successful delivery and trusted us with designing 4 other products. Our team also got a company award. I learned a lot about modular design, accessibility, design handoff, and saw my first website go live.
The State Plan website is not accessible to the general public, but I later worked on two other FirstNet websites, which are: FirstNet Developer Portal and FirstNet App Catalog.