Strategic UX Redesign for Belgian Foreign Affairs: Communication Goals Meet User Needs

The problem

In 2020 the Belgian Foreign Affairs adopted a communication strategy centered on a “digital first” government approach. Their existing website was outdated, not mobile-friendly, and hindered users from finding essential information. My goal was to redesign the website, ensuring strategic alignment with the new communication goals and providing a superior user experience.

Role & Responsibilities

As UX Strategist at iO, I led the project’s UX direction. This included desk research, user research, analysis, information architecture, concept design, prototyping, testing, functional analysis, and stakeholder collaboration to continually advocate for user-centeredness.

Strategic Context

A previous external agency spearheaded the communication strategy, backed by data from stakeholder interviews, focus groups, and top task analysis. Their insights into goals, channels, and key messages served as a foundation for ensuring my UX designs closely supported strategic objectives.

Research & Analysis

To validate the initial problem hypothesis and identify user needs, I employed:

In-depth interviews & Usability Testing: Revealed user goals, pain points, and task-related behaviors.
Tree Testing: Quantified how effectively users could navigate existing information architecture.
Competitive Reviews: Studied successful UX patterns applicable to our government-focused audience.

Raw data was analyzed using affinity mapping, leading to a customer journey map and tree test results presentation, which facilitated productive stakeholder discussions.

A participant trying to complete one of the tasks during a usability test.

A Customer Journey Map as an alignment diagram to map out the painful journey of a user in each phase when trying to navigate on the as-is Foreign Affairs website.

Information Architecture & Design

Content Inventory: I cataloged the vast website content to understand its scope and inform structural decisions.
Conceptual Information Architecture: Collaborated with stakeholders to draft an IA aligned with both communication goals and user needs.
Ideal User Flows: Designed frictionless flows focused on the top ten user tasks, covering the majority of site traffic.
Sketches & Wireframes: Explored layouts and hierarchy, ensuring content duplication across channels was eliminated.
Medium-Fidelity Prototype: Created for iterative user testing.

Screenshot of a Miro board. Here you can see an iterative process to align the existing content with the communication strategy and the approach to the top tasks.

Screenshot of a Miro board. This shows one of the first drafts of wire flows and ideal user flows to determine architecture and the different page layouts to minimise cognitive effort.

A screenshot of the prototype concept’s home page.

Testing & Outcomes

Evaluative usability testing confirmed our design solutions significantly improved the user experience:

Before: Participants could only complete 3 top tasks within 60 minutes, showing high frustration levels.
After: Participants completed 11 top tasks in the same timeframe, expressing satisfaction.

The redesign successfully implemented the communication strategy and optimized content structure for easier maintenance.

A participants trying to complete a task on the new concept during one of the iterations.

Learnings & Next Steps

This project honed my UX strategy skills. To further enhance the website’s alignment with long-term digital objectives, I propose:

UX Strategy Document: A comprehensive strategy to guide ongoing improvements and align with the overarching digital roadmap.
Service Prioritization: A roadmap outlining which Foreign Affairs services to prioritize for optimal user experience, supporting the “digital first” mandate.

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