Minnesota Department of Agriculture

mda.state.mn.us

-- Business Analysis + Usability Analysis + Web Design

High Monkey Consulting worked with the Minnesota Department of Agriculture to perform a redesign of their existing website structure. The MDA received consistent feedback throughout the past few years that their website was difficult to navigate and much of the content was difficult to understand. The MDA hired HMC through an RFP process to provide consulting and web development services in their redesign efforts.

The project involved an analysis of the current MDA existing site architecture and data management practices. The MDA had over 1800 static web pages and 15,000 PDFs that needed to be cataloged and classified by the HMC staff. Next, fifty individuals performed an extensive card sorting exercise to identify how the general public identifies the services and resources of the MDA. This process provided unique insights that allowed the HMC web team to develop a new navigational structure making it easier for users to locate useful and relevant information.

HMC researched and defined several problems with the MDA’s current search system. Among the most important improvements in this project was the development of a comprehensive vocabulary, improved page metadata, and more user-friendly search results. When HMC reviewed current web site content we found that it was written at a college-aged reading level. HMC worked with the MDA to re-write content to an 8 th grade reading level while restructure much of the current content to be shorter and less technical.