The People Lab’s three-part mission is focused on strengthening the government workforce, improving residents’ interactions with government, and reimagining evidence-based policy making. As part of the Harvard University John F. Kennedy School of Government, the lab researches how governments can reduce the friction experienced by residents in accessing benefits and assistance programs, as well as other pressing issues facing the public service workforce. The website audience ranges from fellow academics accessing the research and publications that the lab produces, as well as potential governmental and private-sector partners interested in partnering with the lab to conduct their own research projects.
Snapshot
| Agency Partner | EveryDay |
|---|---|
| Role | WordPress Developer, Project Lead |
| URL | https://peoplelab.hks.harvard.edu/ |
The Problem
The Project Lab’s existing website didn’t provide interest enough in the work that the People Lab did; the projects page was not much more than a listing in grid form, with tiles that provided report titles, but no other information to draw the visitor into learning more about them. On the administration side, the People Lab staff felt locked into a difficult-to-use page builder, and needed a better and more intuitive means of updating content. There was a wealth of information already on the site, but it was difficult to manage, and even more difficult for visitors to find what they were looking for. The People Lab website didn’t need a drastic redesign; it just needed incremental improvements to what was already there.
The Process
The project was completed in two phases. In the first, the existing theme was completely rewritten in a way that eliminated the page builder, while making it easier for the People Lab staff to maintain and add new content. In the second phase, EveryDay design was brought in to reorganize the website, add polish to it, and to reimagine how the content could be presented. Color palettes, which previously held no particular meanings and were coupled with accessibility problems, were streamlined so that each section was marked by a particular color, and everything was arranged to be accessible while staying on brand.
The Results
The finished website became a fresh, modern, and clean representation of all the work and research that the People Lab produced. A Media Coverage section was added to emphasize the work and recognition the People Lab received from publications nationwide. Search filters were added to each of the major content areas to give visitors multiple ways of finding the information that they were looking for. Overall the website loaded faster, performed better on mobile devices, and met all current accessibility standards required by the university.