Contributing to the environment with tackling UX issues, European Environmental Agency case-study

Ah, those warm summer evenings – by the sea, or a lake or maybe at the cozy terrace of your own house. The air is clear and fragrant of all the blooming seasonal flowers, the birds are singing, and the crickets are chirping, the lush midsummer greenery is so beautiful, and the giggling of your children, who run around on a soft emerald grass patch, is adorable.

You think about the future and how you would love to see your grandchildren doing the same thing one day. But then you frown, wondering, if in 20-something years from now, will the world be the same?

Our environment, the need for its preservation and the struggles that our planet goes through – all has been an increasingly hot topic of the last decade. European Commission emphasized the importance of green and twin transitions in its Strategic Foresight report in order to pursue the goal of achieving a carbon-neutral EU by 2050.

Information system of the European Environment Agency

Environmental scope of EU is broad and involves many initiatives and entities, one of the biggest one being European Environmental Agency (EEA). Established exactly 30 years ago in 1994, it is now operating within 32 member countries and six cooperating countries.

Within this impressive scale, the EEA provides independent information on the environment. Its goal is to help those involved in developing, implementing and evaluating environmental policy, but also to inform the general public. In order to do that, among other things, EEA runs and maintains four thematic environmental platforms:

All four thematic information systems are filled with robust data such as reports, statistics and raw numbers, that is aimed for a very different target audiences. Policymakers, academicians, journalists and curious general audience – everybody is welcome to explore.

Each information system contains various sections and subsections, but there are two menu items that are consistently present at each platform: Countries and Data, Maps and Tools (or Data Catalogue).

“Countries” section provides a well composed overview of each member or cooperating country achievement in the particular environmental domain (be it a forest, biodiversity or waterbodies), displaying it as a nice summary of informative texts and infographics.

"Data catalogues and maps" contain literally thousands or reports and statistics, spreadsheets and geo-visualizations for a deeper research and data mining. But across four systems these sections were un-synced, unevenly structured and designed and didn’t look like they belonged to the same product family of a single organization.

There were also some troubles with systems performance and functionality which needed to be addressed. And this is where Trinidad Wiseman stepped in to help.

Fix the problems, keep what works

Of course, i is important to pinpoint the problems and fix what needs fixing. But good Usability testing not only finds the “wrongs”, but also highlights the “rights” – what is there in the system that works well?

Those things should be analyzed and kept within the system. Maybe there are some opportunities for learning and growth and these successful UI elements and UX patterns can be expanded or scaled to the entire product. In this project, we were looking for those moments of positive and smooth interactions and have found a lot!

This is especially important while conducting noticeable re-design to a digital product – keeping some familiar elements will help to smooth users’ resistance to change and help them to adapt to a new information system faster and with less stress.

Research activities like the ones described in this case study are especially relevant in the context of data-heavy systems, that tend to get rigid and resistant to changes. By testing with users and adapting systems even partially we make sure that the product will stay relevant for users and their practical everyday needs.