The USPS Operations Manual | Public Sector / Gov Case Study
Making a 1,000-page federal manual something people can actually use
How the U.S. Postal Service's main mailing-rules manual was reorganized around real tasks. The work was published by USPS and recognized with six design awards.
1,500
Pages restructured around
how people actually work
Cited Model
Studied in design literature
alongside IRS & ATO reforms
6
Awards, including STC International
Award of Excellence
Nationwide
Adopted across USPS; staff
directed to cite it with customers
The Problem
The U.S. Postal Service's chief operations document, the 1,500-page Domestic Mail Manual, was nearly impossible to navigate. It was organized to be thorough and to minimize redundancy, but not to help the people using it. Customers and staff constantly called or visited post offices for answers the document was supposed to provide.
The Research
The DMM Transformation Project was a Carnegie Mellon School of Design initiative involving a team of 15 graduate students and three faculty advisors. As one of those graduate designers, I conducted field research with local businesses and mailers and worked on a small sub-team analyzing wayfinding within the document and the individual page. The core finding the redesign was built on: people think in terms of the mailing process, not the regulations. The manual's structure worked against them.
The Approach
The team restructured the manual around the process of mailing rather than the regulations, with clear language, diagrams, and a consistent visual system. Then we tested versions with real users and refined. The steps below reflect the
shared method I worked within as a contributing designer.
The Outcome
The redesign was adopted across the USPS and published nationwide. Postal staff were even directed to reference and cite the new manual in their conversations with customers. Its user-centered approach helped reorient the agency around the customer experience, not just its regulations. The work was recognized with six awards, including an Award of Excellence from the Society for Technical Communication. It is now studied in design literature as a model of public-sector transformation, cited alongside the IRS and Australian Tax Office reforms.
What this means for your business
This is the discipline I bring to every project: take something overwhelming and complicated and make it simple, findable, and intuitive for the people who actually use it, cutting the hidden cost of confusion out of your operation.
"Jennifer and I collaborated on the information design of a complex, 1,500-page federal manual, a well-documented influential project that demanded attention from high-level content organization informed by user research to the grid system, typography, and iconography.What sets Jennifer apart is her ability to hold complexity without losing sight of the user, navigating large, multi-layered projects with rigor and ease while bringing strategic thinking to every decision. She is a deeply collaborative partner who listens carefully, asks the right questions, and translates the needs of diverse perspectives into brilliant design solutions."-Nassim Parvin, Professor, University of Washington
Role & attribution: A Carnegie Mellon University School of Design project (DMM Transformation Project, directed by Prof. Richard Buchanan) carried out by a team of 15 graduate students and three faculty. Jennifer Anderson contributed as an individual graduate designer on the research and synthesis; the DMM was published by the USPS. Company and agency names are referenced to describe this experience, not to imply a client relationship with Affinity Design.