Connecting a Sovereign Nation with Responsive, Intuitive Website Design
About
The Puyallup are a federally recognized Coast Salish Native American tribe from western Washington. They were relocated onto reservation lands in what is today Tacoma, Washington in 1854. The Puyallup Indian Reservation is one of the most urban Indian reservations in the United States with a population of 2,500. It is located primarily in northern Pierce County.
Problem Overview
The Puyallup Tribe’s website had served its community well for many years. However, the technology was out of date and Tribal leadership wanted a website that could be a primary source of information for Tribal members and the greater community. Ease of use, improved navigation and robust storytelling capabilities were among the top priorities to connect the community with information, services, events and news from the Tribe.
Simplify Navigation, Streamline Access to Information
The Puyallup Tribe has lived on and stewarded the lands of Tacoma and surrounding areas from the beginning of time. Today, the Tribe provides a plethora of services, resources and events to its members. Prior to the website redesign, the majority of that information lived in one place — the homepage. On that homepage, website visitors had to scroll through big blocks of text, alert banners and links to connect with news, departments and tribal entities. To prioritize and organize content, SiteCrafting’s user experience research team hosted stakeholder workshops and paired those insights with member feedback and website analytics. This data uncovered what people were looking for and informed design updates to help them get to it quickly.
The Member Services drop-down menu is among the updates that place the users needs at the center of the website design. Service listings are based on the keywords tribal members use when searching the website. These terms are grouped in categories that match what members said they were looking for based on reliability (rather than alphabetically). Raising awareness for the range of services was also a project priority and the new display showcases this in a scannable, discoverable way.
Bringing Forward the Story of the Tribe
The Tribe does a tremendous amount of work for its members and in the community. Bringing the story of the work and its impact forward throughout the website was a top priority. The latest news pattern featured on the homepage promotes news and updates from the Tribe. This news feature is easy to update for the Tribe’s web team, as well as accessible on multiple pages throughout the website so visitors can connect with news in multiple ways.
The homepage also includes a mix of design patterns that display news, events, a department spotlight, Tribe history and the Tribal Council. As visitors move through the website they can find related news and information on pages throughout. On the Land Acknowledgement page, as an example, the page includes a section with links to related resources including the Language Program and Historic Preservation Department.
Research Insights Drive Design
Our research team surveyed members to find out what they most needed from the website and examined analytics to see which pages were most visited. Insights from this phase of research led to the design of a homepage hero that includes a top task box, “I want to…” This section was designed with a range of stakeholders in mind to help accomplish the project goal of amplifying the Tribe’s story and connect people with the information they needed as quickly as possible.
A new FAQ feature in the Help & Directory section of the website was also designed based on research insights and project goals. To help reduce phone calls to the Main Office this section is scannable, searchable and includes information that aligns with survey data and website analytics.
A New Source of Truth — Forever. And For All.
In addition to being modern and responsive, the website is easier for website administrators to manage and, in turn, easier for people to find the information they need. Prior to launch a Tribal Council member shared the challenge of misinformation on Facebook and other online sources that didn’t originate with the Tribe. The new website is a dynamic source of truth and represents all of the Tribe’s activities and offerings — and the analytics within the first month of launch demonstrate the impact of this restructure. Overall there was an increase in website traffic, news and member services being the top pages viewed, meaning that users were able to easily access resources for the tribal community.
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