UI Redesign · Print · Touching Grass · 2025

NOAA View Data Exploration Tool

A redesign of NOAA's climate data visualization tool, making 100+ environmental datasets actually navigable, paired with a printed how-to guide.

Role

Solo designer

Type

UI redesign · Print design

Deliverables

Figma prototype · Trifold brochure

Tools

Figma · Adobe InDesign

The project

A powerful tool that was hard to use.

The NOAA View Data Exploration Tool gives the public access to over 100 environmental datasets, things like aerosols, ocean temperatures, ozone, and wind speed. The data is all there, but the existing interface makes it really hard to find. Navigation is buried in a cluttered floating sidebar and the hierarchy doesn't make much sense.

The goal was to redesign the tool so it's actually easy to use, and then create a printed how-to guide that walks users through it step by step.

Before & after

A powerful tool hidden behind a confusing interface.

The original interface stacks everything into a floating sidebar on top of the map, which makes it hard to see the data you're actually trying to look at. I moved the navigation to a persistent top bar with a clear category structure, and brought the information panel to the bottom so it doesn't compete with the map.

Before

After

Redesigned screens

Collapsible navigation, clear hierarchy.

The nav works in layers: top-level categories sit in a persistent bar, subcategories expand inline, and you can drill down one more level before the data loads. Everything is collapsible so you never lose your place on the map.

Home — persistent top nav, information panel at bottom

Aerosols selected — data populates map and information panel

Hamburger menu — Share, Settings, Learn More, Contact Us

Help panel — contextual info about the selected dataset

Interactive prototype

Try the redesign.

The Figma prototype walks through the full navigation flow, from selecting a top-level category all the way to loading environmental data on the map.

Print companion

A print companion for the redesign.

Alongside the digital redesign, I made a trifold brochure that walks users through the tool's five main actions: Choose, Add Data, Information, Share, and Animation. It uses the same navy and sage palette as the redesign so the two feel like they belong together.