Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock
Systems Portal
Making 100+ government systems findable, for a fisherman in Pará and a ministry clerk alike, through user research and a full redesign.
- Role
- UX/UI designer intern
- Duration
- 4 months
- 2023
- Focus
- UX/UI
- Research
- Redesign
- Skills & tools
- Figma
- Qualitative research
- Gov.br design system
01overview
A portal for all Brazil
The Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Systems Portal serves as a national gateway. There is no single user profile, as the same portal is used by an artisanal fisherman in Pará seeking registration through PesqBrasil and by an administrative employee looking for the time-tracking system. More than 100 systems coexist on a single page without any categorization, search functionality, or even alphabetical organization.
- 100+Systems cataloged in the database
- 3Ministries served (MAPA, MDA and MPA)
- NationalA user base made of many different audiences
02the problem
Even if you know what you’re looking for, finding it is difficult
By analyzing the user flow, we found that even users who knew exactly which system they needed were often unable to locate it. The list was overwhelming, with no apparent logical structure. Inactive systems were mixed with active ones, and outdated contact information pointed to people who no longer worked at the ministry. The result? Wasted time, increased support requests due to access issues, and frustration, especially for users with limited digital literacy.
how might we
How might we reorganize more than 100 systems within a national access portal so that any user, regardless of their profile, can find what they need in under 30 seconds?
03process
You can’t categorize what you don’t understand
Before making any design decisions, we first needed to understand what actually existed on the portal. We conducted interviews and workshops with department managers and directors across the Ministry, as they were the only people who truly knew which systems were still active, which had been discontinued, and how each department organized its day-to-day work.
The process was collaborative and iterative, with every system reviewed individually. Inactive systems were removed, and undocumented systems were identified and properly documented.
01. Discovery
Mapping existing systems through forms and meetings with department leaders.
02. Audit
System-by-system check of status, broken links and outdated contact information.
03. Collaborative categorization
Categories defined together with each department: Plant Production, Animal Production, Administration, IT, Budget and others.
04. Prioritization
A “most accessed” section, updated monthly with real usage data.
04solution
A system redesigned for every user
Every design decision was made to reduce user effort.
Category-based information architecture
More than 100 systems organized into eight thematic categories, defined together with teams from each department.
Nielsen #6 · recognition
Persistent search
For users who already know what they are looking for, search removes the need for Ctrl+F (a shortcut not everyone knows) or prior knowledge of the portal’s structure.
Nielsen #7 · efficiency
“Most accessed” section
A dynamic section designed to update monthly from usage data, so the interface follows seasonal demand (fishing systems rise during the fishing season). The proposal was approved during the project but was not implemented in the final version.
Nielsen #6 · recognition
05result
Finally, a portal that works!
The project’s collaborative process aligned teams across the Ministry and established a maintenance workflow so the portal stays accurate and continuously updated.
- 100+Systems reorganized into eight thematic groups
- < 1 minUsers now find what they’re looking for in less than a minute
- −35%Access-related errors in the first quarter (IT team’s internal assessment)