Creating EPA's Green Infrastructure Wizard (GIWiz)

Screenshot of EPA's Green Infrastructure Wizard home page showing its "Quick Links" and "Explore" icons

Project Brief

The Challenge

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s website contains a vast array of green infrastructure tools and resources to support community planning and decision-making. But stakeholders had trouble finding these resources because they were so numerous—and so widely dispersed. EPA asked ERG to create a smart Web application so stakeholders could easily connect with resources matching their interests and needs.


ERG's Solution

This project presented a common challenge: how to marry intuitive design and complex data. Using an Agile process (including progressively interactive prototypes for user testing and feedback), ERG designed and built an engaging, easy-to-use, interactive, online tool: the Green Infrastructure Wizard, or GIWiz. GIWiz provides a “smart” or wizard-like user interface, allowing users to query (or respond to questions), quickly connect with, and explore relevant customizable results of green infrastructure techniques, tools, and resources. The tools and resources available through GIWiz will help communities analyze problems, understand management options, calculate design parameters, and much more. See for yourself at http://cfpub.epa.gov/giwiz.


Client

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency