National Science Foundation Funding Search Engine
Architecting a unified search ecosystem to help researchers navigate complex government funding data with ease and precision.
Role
Product Designer
Tools
Figma
Time
2022 - 2025
Tags
Search Experience
Design System
Accessibility
Background
The National Science Foundation (NSF) distributes billions in funding annually, and its Funding Search engine is one of the highest-traffic, most critical portals for researchers nationwide.
As the NSF transitioned to a modernized digital ecosystem, the core search experience was struggling with severe UX debt.
Confusing Filters: Users had to navigate through drop-downs packed with long government department names, with no clear visual feedback on what filters were currently applied.
Cluttered Results: The search result cards were crowded with redundant tooltips and unstructured text, making it hard for users to quickly scan and compare different grants.
Disconnected Searches: Active and archived funding opportunities lived on completely separate systems, forcing users to jump back and forth just to find historical data.
The Goal: Transform a dated, clunky legacy system into a clean, modern, and fully accessible search experience. My mission was to bring active and past funding data onto one unified page, turn confusing form fields into intuitive filters, and ensure every component meets strict government accessibility standards—so all researchers, regardless of ability, can easily find what they need.
Legacy Page
🔑 Key Feature 1: Designing a Searchable Dropdown for Complex Categories
The Problem: The NSF has a very deep organizational structure. The "Directorate/Division" filter contains hundreds of nested departments and acronyms. A standard dropdown menu would force users to scroll endlessly, making it frustrating to find what they need. Also, once they made a selection and closed the menu, their choices were hidden, making it easy to forget which filters were active.
The Solution: I designed an end-to-end filtering experience that makes finding options effortless and keeps system status completely visible.
Find Instantly with In-Filter Search: I added a search bar directly inside the deep "Directorate/Division" menu. Users can type acronyms to instantly narrow down hundreds of options. I also added dynamic numbers next to each option (e.g., 142) so researchers know how many results to expect before clicking.
Clear Parent-Child Logic: Checking a parent category automatically selects its children, making bulk selections easy.
"What You See Is What You Get": Once a filter is applied, it immediately appears as a prominent blue tag (pill) above the search area. Users never have to reopen menus to check their selections.
Effortless Management: Each tag has a clear "X" for one-click removal. For a completely fresh start, I added a "Reset all filters" link, turning a tedious manual process into a single click.