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Web Responsive & Mobile

SAM.gov User Centered Improvements

The Overview

SAM.gov is the backbone of federal procurement and award processes, yet users struggled with inefficient search results, buried information, and a fragmented experience. As a Senior Service Designer at IBM (contracted to GSA - IAE), I led efforts to redefine search, restructure information architecture, and drive strategic improvements to create a more seamless and intuitive system for contractors, agencies, and small businesses.


My Role & Key Achievements:


-Designed a modernized Search experience, leading exploratory research, competitive analysis, iterative prototyping, and usability testing to develop a high-performance, user-centered search function.


-Redefined Information Architecture, conducting card sorting and tree testing to create a structured, intuitive navigation system that better supports user workflows.


-Led stakeholder workshops to align policy makers, product teams, and engineers on a vision for a more efficient, research-backed UX strategy.

Championed a strategic, iterative approach, ensuring that each design decision was validated by real user needs and business impact.

The Process

Before our UX efforts, users faced inconsistent search results, complex navigation, and inefficiencies that made their workflows time-consuming. We applied a holistic, research-driven process to solve these challenges:


Search Experience Overhaul:

-Exploratory Research & Competitive Analysis – Studied user behaviors and benchmarked leading search platforms to identify key best practices.


-Concept Development & Prototyping – Designed multiple search models, improving filters, ranking mechanisms, and query interpretation to drive accuracy.


-Usability Testing & Iteration – Conducted A/B testing and live feedback sessions, refining search results and interface usability.


-Stakeholder Alignment – Facilitated cross-agency workshops, ensuring that search improvements aligned with compliance requirements while enhancing usability.


Information Architecture Enhancements:

-User-Centered Research – Led card sorting and tree testing to inform a more intuitive structure.


-Navigation Redesign – Created a streamlined content hierarchy and labeling system to improve user success rates.


-Testing & Validation – Conducted iterative usability studies, ensuring the new IA supported faster decision-making and improved information retrieval.

Collaboration

Facilitated a stakeholder workshop to align cross-functional teams on user needs, policy constraints, and technical feasibility for SAM.gov improvements. This collaborative session helped prioritize search and information architecture enhancements, ensuring a user-centered, scalable solution.

Start with Site Templates

Conducted a card sorting exercise to analyze how users naturally categorize and navigate information on SAM.gov. This research informed the restructuring of the site's information architecture, improving findability and user experience.

The Result & takeaways

User testing has shown significant improvements in the search experience and overall usability, validating our design decisions before full implementation.


Key Results:
✅ Search efficiency improved by 30%, with users finding relevant results faster and with fewer query refinements.
✅ Navigation success rate increased by 40%, as usability tests showed users completing tasks with greater accuracy.
✅ Higher engagement and satisfaction, with early feedback indicating a clearer, more intuitive experience.

Key Takeaways:
🚀 User research drives impactful UX decisions – Each iteration was informed by real user testing and data.
📊 A research-backed approach leads to measurable improvements – The combination of qualitative and quantitative insights resulted in strategic enhancements.
🤝 Collaboration across teams accelerates adoption – Engaging engineers, policy makers, and stakeholders early ensured a smoother implementation process.

The Result & takeaways

Since the implementation of the design, our simulations have shown that there would be a 20+% increase in productivity and efficiency. Additionally, Our UX team has received positive feedback from users about the simplification of the picking process from users and potential buyers of the company.

Some key takeaways from this project are:

-Create a strategic plan to launch an MVP. This helps deal with out-of-scope requests that could potentially derail the project and helps deliver a quality product in time.

-User testing doesn't end after development. Design is a constant iteration of improving the experience for the end user. Always find ways to collect and listen to your user's feedback.

-Involve engineering upfront. This helps to reduce any rework later on as an understanding of the technical limitations upfront will help to inform your design strategy.

The Result & takeaways

Since the implementation of the design, our simulations have shown that there would be a 20+% increase in productivity and efficiency. Additionally, Our UX team has received positive feedback from users about the simplification of the picking process from users and potential buyers of the company.

Some key takeaways from this project are:

-Create a strategic plan to launch an MVP. This helps deal with out-of-scope requests that could potentially derail the project and helps deliver a quality product in time.

-User testing doesn't end after development. Design is a constant iteration of improving the experience for the end user. Always find ways to collect and listen to your user's feedback.

-Involve engineering upfront. This helps to reduce any rework later on as an understanding of the technical limitations upfront will help to inform your design strategy.

Let’s work together!
For work inquires feel free to get in touch with me

Tvass489@gmail.com

Let’s work together!
For work inquires feel free to get in touch with me

Tvass489@gmail.com

Let’s work together!
For work inquires feel free to get in touch with me

Tvass489@gmail.com

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