Skatteverket - A website redesign
Background
The Swedish Tax Agency or Skatteverket in Swedish manages civil registration of private individuals and collects taxes such as personal income tax, corporate tax and much more. It’s a bureau which all Swedish/non-Swedish citizens need to turn to more or less. It is a well needed platform with well explained information about common tax questions. But my question is - why are authority websites usually less good in usability and overall dull to look at? I visit Skatteverket’s website 2–3 times a month and I thought I might as well could give it a tiny makeover just to get it out of my system.
Purpose
This is a fictive project.
The main goal was to design an interface that I would like to use when I browse Skatteverket website myself. This project is personal and my only purpose was to give it a push towards a more user friendly direction.
Layout
UI guidelines
-
I changed the font from Skatteverket’s original Frutiger Bold to Roboto. The reason why was to simply give it a direct and sincere impression with a friendly touch. The current iconography is solid which is not bad. But for the redesign I really wanted to lighten up the UI by using outlined icons.
-
I gave the new logotype a rounder and softer shape on the element. The colors are also slightly more lighter and sharper.
New search & navigation style
-
The top navigational row has now more outlined icons with a descriptive label next to it.
These two sections with important and current information texts are now displayed in the top area of the content area. They were hidden before and I think it’s a shame to hide important information from the users.
I added a shortcut to the layout - or more correctly - a floating action - to make the contact button much more accessible.
Skatteverket’s original website do not have any burger menu. I decided to add the menu even though there are five shortcuts just below the search bar. The shortcuts will always trigger the menu (pushes into the page from the side). More clarity, less complexity. It should always be easy to navigate. The viewer should always know exactly where they are on the website and have easy access to where they would like to be.
Skatteverket didn’t really put much effort in their search tool. The original search bar is quite small and not prioritized. For this case I wanted to put the search bar first in the room. First of all, an auto-suggestion is a powerful tool to use. So why not use it here? It’s helpful for the user and it’s guiding him/her in their search query.
-
