Fairfax County Park Authority

A redesign of the activity search experience

Conceptual Redesign Challenge | Desktop Experience | UX Research | UX Design | Figma | Photoshop | August 2025

The Problem: The Fairfax County Park Authority’s activity search page serves thousands of residents signing up for classes, camps, and community programs. However, the current search and filter experience is cluttered and unintuitive, making it hard for users to quickly find and register for activities. For working parents trying to secure camps or after-school programs, the confusing interface only adds to the stress and chaos of opening-day registration.

Solution: By streamlining filters, modernizing the search layout, and improving the clarity of results, the redesigned registration page makes it faster and easier for residents to discover and enroll in activities. A cleaner interface, clearer labels, and more intuitive navigation reduce frustration, transforming registration from a stressful process into a straightforward experience.

Fairfax County residents rely on the Park Authority site to register for camps and classes, but a cluttered and confusing interface makes finding and securing activities difficult.

Research

Heuristic evaluation of current interface

1. Search Flow & Usability

  • Heavy Cognitive Load: Users are forced to start with a blank search without the ability to browse activity categories that interest them.

  • Too many filters up front: Presenting all filters at once may overwhelm users.

  • Language clarity: Filter titles can be simplified (“Category of Activity” and “Starting On or After” can be optimized).

  • Redundancy:

    • “Month” overlaps with “Starting On or After” filter.

    • The "Our registration system was recently updated" announcement is internal-facing; users don't care about the system, they care about finding a class.

  • Accessibility: Drop downs and search fields don’t appear to have clear programmatic labels. A screen reader would likely cause issues for users with visual, cognitive, or motor disabilities.

2. Visual & Information Hierarchy

  • Page layout: The filter form takes up the whole screen, pushing results below the fold.

  • Header issues: Logo and branding balance, overloaded top-level menu, visually heavy buttons lacking primary/secondary call to action.

3. Search Results Card

  • Language clarity: Table titles can be simplified to provide clarity.

  • Displaying non-essential information: “Session” column can include duplicative information or activity codes which are irrelevant to users.

  • Visibility of class status: Lack of visual cues and iconography make results less scannable.

Performed a competitor analysis comparing the Fairfax County Park Authority registration page to the YMCA, Reston Community Center, and DC Public Library. The review highlighted how competitors offer more intuitive browsing and streamlined filtering, setting higher expectations for users. These insights informed my redesign by showing where FCPA lags—particularly in search usability, visual hierarchy, and accessibility—and where opportunities exist to bring the experience closer to modern standards.

Competitor analysis

After a heuristic evaluation of the existing FCPA activity search page and a competitor analysis, I determined what primary design changes would improve the activity search experience.

  • Improved browsing and discoverability by adding cards with imagery where users can browse activities at a glance. This both supports exploratory behavior and adds visual hierarchy so the page doesn’t feel like a blank form.

  • Streamlined search filters by updating to a prominent search bar and filters in easy-to-scan chips.

  • Improved language clarity by using more straight forward, simplified language in chip filters and search result table headers.

  • Removed redundancy in page announcements, filter text, and overlap.

  • Created a modern and accessible search results table. Introduced clear row headings, icons, and color coding for easy scanning. Also redesigned buttons to include primary and secondary for more visible call to actions.

  • Updated header with simplified navigation, primary/secondary buttons, and modern visual hierarchy.

Final Designs