It’s finally happened. What was once only a figment of the imagination of social theorists and science fiction authors alike has now become a reality; the Internet has made our society into an information society. From the smartphone to the social network, there are an incredible amount of mediums by which information can move around the world. The rapid flow of information that the Internet has brought is quickly increasing governmental transparency. But even more importantly, the equal nature of the Internet is giving a voice to historically marginalized groups.

In October 2013, Saudi Arabian women used the Internet to organize a protest to unite in defying the Saudi Arabian ban on driving.

By putting all users on an equal footing, the Internet is inherently empowering for the individual. And as an tool of individual political empowerment, the Internet is the ACLU’s biggest ally.

The ACLU (or the American Civil Liberties Union) was founded in 1920 to “defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person” living in the United States. The role of the ACLU evolves based on the most dire issues facing American society, but at its core, the goal of the ACLU is to ensure that life in the United States is fair and equal for all people, especially for those who are marginalized and oppressed. In many cases, the ACLU advocates for minorities, minors, undocumented immigrants, and the impoverished. Due to widespread subordination, it is not a coincidence that many of the clients of the ACLU do not have the privilege of a college education or immense technical literacy. It is for this reason that it is essential that the website of the ACLU be as simple and easy to navigate as possible for any individual. At present, this is not the case.

Meet Juan. Juan is a 28 year old factory worker in Kansas City, MO. He leads a fulfilling and wholesome lifestyle with his two young children and wife. He enjoys watching football in the afternoon after teaching Sunday school, Harrison Ford movies (while he doesn’t quite understand the dialogue, he enjoys the action), and taking long road trips with his family. He also happens to be an undocumented immigrant. During one road trip, Juan is traveling through southern Arizona and sees a police car following steadily behind him. The officer flashes his lights, and Juan pulls over. Luckily, when the officer walks over to the car, the officer begins to speak Spanish, so Juan can understand him. The officer then proceeds to tell Juan that he wanted to check the registration of the car (since the license plate indicated it was from Missouri). Juan complies and shows the officer the registration. The officer then asks Juan for his passport or proof of residency. Juan is unsure of what to do, but he has heard of the ACLU advocating for undocumented immigrants like himself, so he pulls up the ACLU website on his smartphone. This is what he’s confronted with.

Slightly panicked, Juan scans the page, looking for the “Leer en Español” option. He knows it has to exist, since he sees an article in Spanish on the page, but he cannot a way to change the page in Spanish at all. There are too many words on the screen for his wife to to try to translate them via the Google Translate app as well. The officer, seeing that Juan cannot produce proof of citizenship, decides to search Juan’s car. Juan and his family exit the car and sit on the side of the road watching the officer search through the glove compartment. One of his children takes a picture of the officer with her phone. The officer asks her to delete the picture. The officer then arrests Juan, citing his lack of proof of citizenship and his possession of a new iPhone 6 (a gift for family in San Diego) within his car as probable cause for crime.

Much of what the officer did in this situation is very wrong (and quite possibly very racist). Juan did not have to consent to a search of his car, and his family could have asked to leave at any time. The officer had no right to stop Juan’s daughter from taking a picture of him searching the car, and Juan and his family had the right to remain silent at all times during their interaction with the police, and not consent to any questioning after the registration was taken by the officer. There are many incredible and compassionate police officers in the United States who fight every day to protect a community they love, and while abusive actions by police similar to what happened here are rare, they aren’t nonexistent yet.

The core value of the ACLU is to help people in situations like the one Juan is in. This is why we decided to redesign the ACLU website—to make it simpler to use in tense situations by those who do not have the privilege of extensive education.

What Juan would have seen

Upon opening the page, the first thing the user sees is the ACLU logo, and then lots of words. While news about the ACLU’s current cases is important, it isn’t the first thing that a potential ACLU client would need in a tense situation with a police officer, employer, or government agent. It is difficult to navigate the page in order to find answers to situation specific questions. The Spanish website (which is the third result after searching “ACLU Español” on Google) has the same problems.

Mi ACLU is the Spanish language version of the ACLU website. There are no clear hyperlinks from the official ACLU website to the Spanish language version of the ACLU website

The homepage at least has a link to TUS DERECHOS (or in English, YOUR RIGHTS). When you click on TUS DERECHOS, you see this.

Much of the information is very specific to laws regarding undocumented immigrants that may only apply within California

While this page has helpful information, it is not organized in a way that would make it simple to quickly use in the stressful situation that Juan is in.

We decided that the best way to organize the page would be to personalize it to the user, and initially organize it based solely on the user’s most pressing and important needs, rather than the new news at the ACLU.

Our redesign turns the focus towards the user rather than the ACLU. The user has to simply click the circle that describes them the best. It is also very clear where to change the language of the webpage, with a Spanish specific link at the upper-right corner of the page. The newer design does include content and links similar to what is present in the original ACLU page. However, changes in the use of shapes, color and text in the new design have been made to better reflect the immediate needs of ACLU beneficiaries. Rounder shapes have been used to delineate areas of greater interest. Moreover, the placement of color within the page (especially red) is meant to draw attention to important links. Lastly, the use of white space and simple text have made the page easier to read through — allowing for users to not feel as overwhelmed by the wealth of information offered.

Let’s say Juan switched his language to Spanish, and clicked the Undocumented button. This is what he would see.

The next page has a very clear layout of the different situations an undocumented immigrant may likely find themselves in, including being discriminated against because of immigration status or being pulled over at a traffic stop and being asked for identification.

After Juan clicks on the situation that describes his current situation, he sees the screen above. It contains a detailed but brief summary of what Juan needs to do in that situation, including complying with police and speaking with a lawyer after the arrest, and using his right to remain silent when asked any questions by the police. The ACLU website currently has all of this information, but it is spread out over several different articles and pages. This page would consolidate all that information into one very utilitarian page, and Juan could use the blue scroll bar to further look at state and location specific information.

The interface for people who fit into the other categories (i.e. US Citizen, Minor) is similar.