CUNY Long Island Zoning Atlas
Reimagined GIS realities with UX/UI
UX Research | Usability Testing | High Fidelity Wireframing | Prototyping
My Role
Client communication, Developed Research Plan, Recruited participants, Moderated user tests, Analyzed results, Developed HiFi prototypes
Clients
CUNY Mapping Service at the Center for Urban Research at The CUNY Graduate Center
Team
Radhika Phansalkar
Ivory Zhao
Manjot Kaur
Penghao Zhu
Qingyang Xu
Project Duration
March 2024 - May 2024
7 weeks
Skills
Usability Testing
Moderated User Tests
Prototyping​​
Tools
Figma
Google suite for clients
Website Overview
Our clients CUNY Mapping Services collaborated with the Long Island Community Foundation (LICF), Rauch Foundation and Community Development Long Island to develop the Long Island Atlas Zoning website which was launched in December 2023.
The Long Island Zoning Atlas website provides a bird's-eye-view of zoning patterns across Long Island as well as providing detailed information for each of the over 1,200 individual zoning districts across Long Island's 13 towns, two cities, and almost 100 incorporated villages. This map give a quick picture of where 1, 2, or 3+ housing units can be built. Additionally, it is readily apparent how many districts allow housing to be built as-of-right versus those that require a public hearing.
Existing interface and issues overview​
"What am I exactly looking at?"
Landing Page with Popup guide
"Oh! I totally missed the pop up instructions. I thought it was some cookies/ notifications screen."
Map page - Resulting in mind freeze
"Wow, there is so much for me to focus on. I can't figure out what I should do first."
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92%, dismissed the Popup Guide immediately without further consideration.
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80% of users faced difficulties navigating the Map Layer Filters in the left panel of the Map Page.
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80% struggled to understand the Zoning Information displayed in the right panel (Ref. User Findings).
Solutions Overview
"Wow! There is so much more clarity!"
Recommendation 1
Building an introduction, creating trust
Recommendation 2
Mapping the visual hierarchy, empowering action decision
Recommendation 3
A map that chats and guides you through!
Recommendation 4
Diving deep in UX x GIS with 3D MAPPING!
Project Roadmap to the Solutions
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Defining Project Goals with Clients
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Identifying how users interact with the website.
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How might we enhance the usability of the website, so that the target users of the website caters wider audience, attract new users and enhances user retention.
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How might we make the data within the website more discoverable.
Research Objectives
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Identify areas of enhancement by studying users interaction directed towards discoverability and visibility of the information sets.
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Identify user priorities within information sets and reinform the information hierarchy.
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Study users' mental models to identify gaps within user flows.
Project Deliverables
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Usability testing report of website.
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3 Major findings and Reccommendations.
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High fidelity prototypes of reinformed UX design.
Participant Recruiting
Identifying User Groups for moderated testing recruitment
The website can be used by anyone who requires zoning information and housing permissions on long Island. The user can be researchers, professionals of various fields such as urban planners, architects, land developers, real estate investors and even Long Island residents who need data about their land.
8 Professionals
24 Initial Outreach
Participant recruitment​
15 Participants
Moderated interviews
45 minutes
In-depth interviews
Professionals from related organizations,
Professionals from Urban Planning and Architecture
Researchers
7 Non-Professionals
Long Island residents
Students from GIS Studies
Students from Urban Planning and Architecture disciplines
Participant Demographics
Moderated Interviews - Tasks
Separate research tasks were curated to fit separate mental models. The research tasks for Professionals focused on finding gaps by identifying their mental models and requirements with reference their prior knowledge and expectations from other GIS mapping systems. The research tasks for Non-professionals focused on finding gaps between user experience by identifying ease or difficulty of grasping the functions of the website.
Tasks for "Professionals" group
SCREENER QUESTIONS
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Have you used land zoning websites before and which are those websites?
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How do you generally find the data that is relevant to you?
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TASKS
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Go to the website https://www.longislandzoningatlas.org/
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What’s your first impression as a new visitor on the website?
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Try to find an area and its information on the LI website - Can you briefly describe your user flow when you usually use zoning websiteand speak out loud what is your process and finding?
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What’s the first thing you will look for to find relevant data for you?
See if they use the search bar or zoom in-out.
See how they use filters/toggles and how they read the information.
Note down information hierarchy and user priority.
FOLLOW UP QUESTIONS
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What were you looking for when you enter this page/click on this?
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Did you find what you were looking for? Why?
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How easy (1-5 scale) for you to find the information that you need? Why?
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Which features do you find are mostly helpful to you? Why?
Tasks for "Non-Professionals" group
SCREENER QUESTIONS
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How familiar are you with using GIS maps(GIS: Graphic Information Systems)?（1 Never-5 Very Familiar）
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How familiar are you with using online Land Zoning websites?（1 Never-5 Very Familiar）
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Have you ever having experience building extra accessories in your house? If so, how did you check the availability? Laws?
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SCENARIO
As a local homeowner, you want to add an extra garage in your backyard. Based on the land constitutional prescription, can you do that in the place that you live in?
TASKS
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Go to the website https://www.longislandzoningatlas.org/
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What’s your first impression as a new visitor on the website?
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Browse the home page by clicking on as many thing as possible. Describe out loud everything you notice.
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Explore the website find out the availability that you can build an extra accessories in your backyard at the place you live in?
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Difficulties of the process (Easy:1-Hard:5) Please Elaborate.
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Scale 1-5, how likely are you to recommend this website to a colleague or peer in your field? and Why?
If people close the intro “Tips for making the best use of the Long Island Zoning Atlas”directly ask them why?
See how they use filters/toggles and how they read the information.
Note down information hierarchy and user priority.
Affinity Mapping
After the moderated interviews, we compiled all the data and analyzed it into 8 categories.
User Findings
The issues were consistent across 5 major touchpoints throughout the interviews.
1
92% Users closed the Popup guide without a second thought.​​
"I don't want to go through the data without knowing who the website is by."
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80% Users struggled with Map Page - Map Layer Filters (Left Panel)​​
"The drop down information is a lot to remember."
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80% Users struggled with- Zoning Information (Right Panel)​​
“The results showing at the bottom of the right column is not easy to discover”
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50% Users misses the Search Bar​​
"The Address and Municipality toggle in the search is so helpful but I almost missed the search bar ."
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Additional Findings
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80% Users say the map should have more screen space.
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80% Users said transparency legend section is large and not frequently used, can be placed at the bottom instead of top center.
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33% Users can’t understand the meaning of terminologies among filters and zoning informations.
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33% Users say Icon and Button: arrow is difficult to understand, no need to have “Clear selection” button.​
Main Findings
Rating severity, prioritizing issues!
92% users closed the pop up and asked for credibility
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Text heavy
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Need more visual data
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Users asked for sources of the website data
80% users felt hard to discover Information
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Lack of visibility of applied filters.
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Participants feel difficult to find the information result after selecting an area.
Massive Silence : No feedback,
No reachouts
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Insufficient visibility of the date and sources of the current data.
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The contact information are less discoverable by professional users
Recommendations
Where UX Best practices meets GIS best practices!
Recommendation 1
Create a Landing page which will guide users to the function of important information of the Zoning Atlas.
Recommendation 2
Build a visible and clear interactive structure for the map by focusing on prioritization of information that users need.
Recommendation 3
Introduce LI Bot - an efficient way for users to get AI powered zoning data and statement.
Recommendation 1
Building an introduction, creating trust
“I am glad to see the introductions of the mapping system at the beginning of the home page, it is much more clear than the pop up.“
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Create a GIS landing page that empowers users with clear choices: "Go to Map" or "How to Use the Map." Establish credibility, highlight user testimonials, and include a "Contact Me" section for easy connection with the website team.
Recommendation 2
Mapping with ease and clarity
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Designing visually distinct sections to define different purposes of the functions.
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Realigning the location of the search bar to indicate the the search only functions within the map and not as a global search bar.
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Reinforming the location of the Types of zoning Districts from top of map to bottom of the map to visually increase the map coverage.
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Always having "How to use the Map" option at the top right available at the first click to help users refer to the guide.
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Letting "How to use the Map" open in a new window so that the map screen and data is not disturbed.
“I really like that you split different type of content into sections, and now I can clearly tell how to adjust layers and what to expect for the zoning information.”
Recommendation 3
A map that chats and guides you through!
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Prompt-based chatbots guide the conversation along predefined paths or topics, ensuring a structured interaction.
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Li Bot answers from the websites' predefined data sets to reduce risks of anomalous information.
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Prompt-based chatbots can efficiently handle common queries or tasks by presenting users with quick options.
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Areas of digital inclusivity, for example addressing color blindness, identifying the meanings of terminologies used across the website, etc.
“I love the “LI Bot”, the avatar is so cute! It is easy for me to find anything I want as a new user.”
Bonus Recommendation
Diving deep in UX x GIS with 3D MAPPING!
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​3D GIS allows for more realistic and immersive visual representations of geographic data. This is especially useful in urban planning, landscape modeling, and environmental analysis, as it helps stakeholders better understand the terrain, structures, and overall environment.
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LHomeowners can use 3D GIS to get a realistic view of their property and its surroundings. Whether for remodeling, landscaping, or planning new additions, 3D models help visualize how changes will affect the property’s aesthetics and functionality before making any decisions.
“This 3D tool is brilliant to understand the land development around my area. Would definitely use it to make a real estate investment decision .”
After developing the prototypes, we conducted 5 users tests to test our designs, which helped up further refine the solutions!
User Feedback 1
Overall, the users reacted positively to the visual consistency of the website.
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The drop down bottom is too small.
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2/5 users preferred list + multiple choice instead of selection tag, because the list view is convenient to compare different color legends”.
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Reference image of list selection for a ux considerations:
Increase section prominence!
User Feedback 2
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The download button, "i" for information icon at the Map Layers section and Zoning information section need to be more prominent.
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Possible ux design considerations:
Client Feedback
"This is amazing work and brilliant research!".
Upon concluding the usability research and recommendations, we shared our findings and the final prototypes with our clients.
Final Presentation at Pratt Institute Manhattan Campus, 30 April 2023
You've really gone indepth with the study and recommendations! We definitely do see them being incorporated."
"The visual balance within the map page you've achieved in your designs, really solves most of the current issues in usability. Really like the floating panels idea."
"The landing page recommendation is definitely a great way to introduce users to the webiste! Love the hovers and testimonial additions."
Reflections
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Engaging in usability testing has profoundly highlighted the significance of user-centric design in my professional journey. Through these tests, I've come to realize that what may seem intuitive to us as designers or developers might not necessarily align with the needs and expectations of our users. The ultimate measure of success lies in how effectively our product serves its intended audience, which resonates profoundly with our clients.
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As a UX designer, embracing the importance of learning new skills from other disciplines has been transformative in enriching my approach to design and expanding my professional horizons. This project required us to deep-dive in the realm of GIS mapping, an undiscovered discipline for the team. This made us realize how well rounded UX Researchers need to be in order to provide relevant contribution to the clients and their hardworked projects.
A sneak peak into our Archives!
