CUNY Long Island Zoning Atlas
SaaS
GIS
UX/UI
Usability
Impact.
Made complex zoning and spatial data navigable at scale.
Identified and resolved 5 critical usability barrier.
Improved task completion efficiency by 40%
Project Overview.
The 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 platform gives 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.
Team
Radhika Phansalkar (UI Lead)
Qingyang Xu (UI)
Ivory Zhao (UX)
Manjot Kaur (UX)
Penghao Zhu (PM)
Duration
12 weeks
Tools
Figma, ArcGIS, QGIS
Friction points.
"What am I exactly looking at?"
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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).
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."
Design Challenge.
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How might we enhance the usability of the Zoning Atlas so it serves a wider audience, attracts new users, and improves long-term retention?
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How might we improve the discoverability of zoning data so users can efficiently locate and interpret the information they need?
"Wow! There is so much more clarity!"
Design Solutions.
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!
Streamlining The Zoning Experience.
Video - Solution Long Island Zoning Atlas website.
Project Roadmapping.
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Research Objectives.
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Identify opportunities for enhancement by analyzing user interaction patterns related to the discoverability and visibility of information sets.
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Establish user priorities within information sets to reinform and restructure the information hierarchy.
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Examine users' mental models to surface gaps in existing user flows and inform a more intuitive navigation structure.
Participant 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.
45 minutes
In-depth interviews
8 Professionals
Professionals from related organizations,
Professionals from Urban Planning and Architecture
Urban Researchers
7 Non-Professionals
Long Island residents
Students from GIS Studies
Students from Urban Planning and Architecture
Usability Tests.
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.
Affinity Mapping.
After the moderated interviews, we compiled all the data and analyzed it into 8 categories.
Findings.
The issues were consistent across 5 major touchpoints throughout the interviews.
1
"I don't want to go through the data without knowing who the website is by."
92% Users closed the Popup guide without a second thought.​​
2
80% Users struggled with Map Page - Map Layer Filters (Left Panel)​​
"The drop down information is a lot to remember."
3
80% Users struggled with Zoning Information (Right Panel)​​
“The results showing at the bottom of the right column is not easy to discover”
4
50% Users misses the Search Bar​​
"The Address and Municipality toggle in the search is so helpful but I almost missed the search bar ."
5
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.​
Prioritization.
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 find it 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
Solutions.
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."
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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
“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.”
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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.
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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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.”
Recommendation 4
Diving deep in UX x GIS with 3D MAPPING!
“This 3D tool is brilliant to understand the land development around my area. Would definitely use it to make a real estate investment decision .”
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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.
After developing the prototypes, we conducted 5 users tests to test our designs, which helped up further refine the solutions!
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:
Feedback 2
Increase section prominence!
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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:
"This is amazing work and brilliant research!"
Client Feedback.
Team at Pratt Institute
Key Takeaways.
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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.
Sneak Peak Into The Archives.
