Redesigning Denver’s permitting website to reduce customer service call volume
City and County of Denver | 2025 | 12 weeks
Role(s): Strategist, Designer, Researcher
Team: 1 UX designer
Tools: Figma, Lucidspark
Conducted heuristic audit, created new information architecture and designs, and conducted usability testing with 14 users resulting in a redesign where users completed their tasks 90% of the time.
Problem
Denver's permitting website exists to connect residents, business owners, and contractors with the resources and applications they need for a home, business, or development project. But the site leaned heavily on in-line text links with poor visual hierarchy, making it hard to find the right information and pushing a high volume of confused users to call an already-busy government office instead.
My Role
I worked as the strategist, designer, and researcher on this project. I was solo on the design side but tightly coordinated with the development team throughout. That meant conducting the site audit, building current- and future-state site maps, designing wireframes, running usability testing, and continuously checking my proposed changes against a short timeline and a limited existing design template I had to design within.
Site Audit & Mapping
Site audit conducted to determine key areas for improvement
I audited the existing site against a set of usability heuristics to pinpoint where it was failing users and paired those findings with a set of recommendations.
Findings:
Inconsistent buttons, navigation, and layouts disrupt a predictable user experience.
Limited top-level navigation and inconsistent categorization make information hard to find.
Heavy reliance on CPD links and isolated pages reduces visibility and forces extra steps.
PDFs and forms are inconsistently placed, scattering important resources across sites.
Recommendations:
Consistent navigation, layouts, and link behaviors will improve predictability and efficiency.
Stronger site visibility, persistent sub-navigation, and grouping by type/task will improve wayfinding and clarity.
Integrating CPD content and consolidating permits will boost search visibility and simplify navigation.
Convert PDFs to webpages or clearly label them when used.
Site maps and user flows
From the audit, I built a site map of the current state and a proposed future-state site map, then used both to write user stories and flows. Rather than writing one story per user group, I built the four stories around the most common permit types the office actually receives applications for.
User stories:
Homeowner is applying for permits to construct an accessory dwelling unit (ADU).
Local chef is applying for building and health permits to open a new restaurant.
Developer is applying for construction permits to build a new 4-story office building.
Landlord is applying for mechanical permits to replace radiant heaters in all units.
This let me stress-test the new information architecture against real, high-frequency scenarios and they let stakeholders sanity-check the proposed structure, catching anything glaringly missing before I invested time in high-fidelity design.
Example of a future state user flow
Design & Testing
Wireframes and prototyping
Working within Denver's existing design system and template constraints, I translated the site maps into wireframes and then a high-fidelity prototype, ready to put in front of users.
Usability testing and iteration
I tested the prototype with 14 users spanning the 5 user groups (Homeowner, Developer/Owner & Architect/Engineer, Contractor, Restaurant Owner, Small Business Owner), each working through a task-based scenario built from the user stories above. The results validated the new direction, as all users found the redesign clearly preferable to the existing site, and completed their assigned tasks 90% of the time.
Testing also surfaced specific, fixable problems, which led to some additional changes before launch:
The "Permit Discovery Tool" was moved to the top of every page for better findability, and renamed, as research revealed that the original name didn't clearly communicate what the tool did.
"Related Departments" was moved off the homepage onto its own page, since its presence there was confusing users about what they actually were supposed to do on this site.
Several buttons were promoted higher in the visual hierarchy based on what users actually reached for first.
Outcomes & Reflection
Key Outcomes
Testing showed a 90% task completion rate across all 5 user groups, indicating a strong, measurable signal that the new information architecture worked for the people who rely on this site. Stakeholders were also more satisfied with the final design, specifically because they had input on navigation and structure early on, rather than reacting to finished screens late in the process. Additionally, building site maps and user flows before any high-fidelity design meant less time spent redoing polished designs and more time confirming the underlying structure was right.
Since the updated site went live, reported customer service call volume for permitting questions has gone down, consistent with the redesign's original goal of helping people self-serve the information they need.
Final Thoughts
This project is a good example of designing under constraints—a short timeline, an existing, legacy development system I couldn't deviate from, and a government stakeholder group balancing many priorities at once. Grounding every design decision in a heuristic audit and user flows before touching high-fidelity screens meant the final design held up under usability testing instead of just looking right in a mockup.
You can view the live website now!