NOAA Weather

Spearheaded app redesign using a new design system and feedback from user interviews and usability tests.

Role: UX Researcher & Designer

Timeline: Nov 2020 - May 2022

OVERVIEW

The IDSS Engine is a weather research prototype developed by NOAA’s Global Systems Laboratory to help NWS forecasters and partners define critical weather thresholds and receive timely alerts.

As the sole UX researcher and designer, I led the product’s UX evolution by:
01 Creating base personas to anchor design decisions
02 Mapping user flows through detailed journey maps
03 Building a custom design system from the ground up
04 Continuously validating and refining designs through user research

01 PERSONAS

Focusing our design through user personas

As the lab pursued funding and new use cases, I developed user personas to clarify and align on our evolving target audience. I started with low-fidelity drafts to spark team discussions, then refined them using insights from interviews with NWS forecasters. These personas became key reference points as we expanded the tool’s scope and functionality.

02 USER FLOWS

Visualizing the user flows to identify design opportunities and pain points

To better understand how each persona interacted with the prototype within NOAA’s broader ecosystem, I created detailed user flow diagrams and journey maps. These visuals clarified product boundaries, surfaced integration challenges, and became key communication tools across our team. One NWS stakeholder even incorporated the visuals into official training materials, reinforcing their value.

03 DESIGN SYSTEM

Elevating the protoype through design components and UX heuristics

After conducting a heuristic analysis of the UI, I identified major accessibility issues—especially with red-green color use common in weather apps.

Below - screenshots from the original prototype

To address this, I established a design system inspired by NOAA.gov’s style guide and tailored it to our lab’s needs.

I created updated mockups using the new system and collaborated closely with our front-end developer, who applied the refreshed design to IDSS Engine and several other lab prototypes. The resulting UI improvements were implemented over multiple sprints, significantly enhancing visual consistency and accessibility ahead of user research.