Modernizing FEMA's Mitigation Planning Portal

Modernizing FEMA's Mitigation Planning Portal (MPP) recreated the plan management experience, so plan managers could quickly return to their plans, review large jurisdiction data more clearly, and manage plan updates without being overwhelmed by notifications.

Role
UX Designer
Client
FEMA
Timeline
Feb 2024 – Sep 2025
Platform
Web Application
MPP Plan Detail page

Overview

A federal client’s Mitigation Planning Portal is used to manage and track hazard mitigation plans across all ten regions nationwide.

As the sole UX designer on the team, I focused on improving the plan management experience in MPP 2.0 to help users look up, review, and manage plans with less friction.

"Consolidated space of record for mitigation plan status."

— Stakeholder workshop, FEMA

Understanding the Users

I focused on Federal users, who have access across all 10 regions and the most complex workflows.

Access to all ten regions
Federal
Full access across all 10 regions. The user with the most complex workflow.
Access limited to one assigned region
Regional
Regional users oversee data quality across their assigned regions. Their responsibilities are similar to those of Federal users but limited to specific regions.
Access limited to one state within a region
State
State users are limited to their assigned region or state and have roles similar to Federal users within their jurisdiction.

Design Challange

Plan detail pages showed everything at once

Funding, status, and jurisdiction data competed within a single dense view. Jurisdiction data in particular was hard to scan and review where it sat.

Notifications were all or nothing

Users had option to either receive all notifications or none at all. For plan managers working with dozens of plans, this made tracking updates difficult and easy to miss.

Legacy Design

The earlier plan detail page tried to show too much at once without clear navigation. Funding, status, and jurisdiction data competed within one dense view, making review harder.


Ideation

Pain point 01

Returning to an active plan required a new search.

Create a clearer entry point to my plans page.

Pain point 02

Plan detail pages showed everything at once.

Give dense data its own space so jurisdiction review is a task of its own.

Pain point 03

Notifications were all or nothing.

Let plan managers choose which alert types they receive.

Mapping the plan management workflow

I created an end-to-end workflow to understand how key tasks are connected across MPP. This helped me figure out missing pieces and where new entry points were needed.

MPP user flow diagram

Yellow shows features carried over from Legacy MPP.
Blue shows new features added within existing pages for MPP 2.0.
Green shows new pages introduced in this design phase.

Final Designs

The final design focused on improving the three main workflows. Helping plan managers access assigned plans, reviewing jurisdiction data in a clearer space, and managing plan updates with more control.


Jurisdiction status

Problem
The plan detail page had every information about the plan and the jurisdiction data was at the bottom of that page. Most of it was read only, but plan managers also went to leave comments and check important dates like when it was approved.

Design Solution
The plan detail page was divided into two main sections. The top half was the reference information. The bottom half was a jurisidction data and I moved it to a dedicated tab so each had it's own space.

I presented the new design to the client as helping plan managers scanning the information faster and make fewer errors during review.

Before: Jurisdiction data embedded inside the dense Plan Detail page After: Jurisdiction Status moved to its own dedicated tab

Design 02

Alert preferences

Problem
Plan managers received too many notification or northing, with no way to filter.

Proposed Design
I explored an split-panel design to keep the users focused on the plan's list while users configured alerts across multiple plans.

Alert Preferences split-panel interaction

Prototype

Prototype preview

The embedded Figma prototype may not load consistently, please click the link to view the full prototype.

View full prototype

Outcomes

This project did not include formal usability testing or post-launch analytics, so I do not claim measured impact. The primary outcome was a clearer plan management workflow for MPP 2.0.

The design work clarified how plan managers could review jurisdiction-level data and manage alert preferences across multiple plans. It also provided the team with a clearer structure for integrating new features into the existing MPP workflow.