Project Overview:
Project Type:
Public Sector
Project Duration:
February 2024 - June 2024
My Role:
I served as the Senior Experience Designer responsible for creating design collateral for the team and aiding the lead researcher in usability studies and research synthesis
Skills Used:
Branding | Concept Generation | Iconography | Visual Communications | Wireframing
Tools Used:
Adobe XD | Mural | InDesign | Illustrator | Gemini
Background Overview
When people experience unemployment in the state of Illinois, they are subjected to both an uncertain time within their lives and a daunting process ahead within the state. For this account, our client wanted to improve that experience by re-vamping the end to end experience a claimant faces when filing for unemployment.
The goal for the team was to facilitate a client workshop that would enable participants to reimagine the correspondence experience for those recently unemployed. As a prerequisite to the workshop, the team also conducted a number of onsite interviews with key stakeholders. This enabled us to gain additional insights and a higher level of detail around their ways of working. A number of claimant pain points were realized as a result of these interviews and from data the team was provided.
For example, one insight revealed that while claimants might have been entitled to unemployment, they were often unaware of their rights, or how to get the benefits they deserved. Some applicants were also not able to find the information they needed and did not know what steps to take. Finally, some applicants misunderstood the correspondence due to the difficult legal language that was used. While keeping these pain points in mind, the team hoped to generate new ideas that could improve the claimant's experience and serve as future MVP concepts.
The Challenge
Our client wanted to reimagine the way that correspondence was presently delivered to claimants. They also wanted to rewrite the language used in select correspondence. This would ensure it adhered to Federal Plain Language guidelines while improving the claimant's understanding of IDES services, rules, and regulations. Finally, our client wanted to improve claimant equity in relation to UI benefits through the creation of a secure and user-friendly method for correspondence delivery and claimant access.
The Workshop
The workshop took place over a 3 day period. During the workshop we took participants through a concept generation activity to derive possible outcomes for our MVP. For this portion of the project, I paired with our lead researcher and project manager to design all of the collateral used for the workshop. I used Adobe Illustrator and InDesign to create custom concept worksheets, persona and archetype posters, and How Might We cards. The materials served as guides to keep the teams on task with who and what we were designing for. I also helped facilitate one of the workshops alongside my team. Lastly, I assisted our Lead Researcher in conducting moderated user interviews and research synthesis when interviewing the stakeholders.
Examples of some of the custom workshop graphics the team used
The Emerging Solutions
As a result of the workshop, our team arrived at five possible concepts we could explore. The stakeholders decided to immediately proceed with a concept that would revitalize their most common claimant correspondence letters first. Since claimants were having a difficult time with understanding the documents they received when dealing with unemployment, our stakeholders felt this would be an ideal MVP. This concept would be followed by another concept that would focus on automating the creation of letters while interfacing with AI capabilities to simplify and streamline the correspondence process.
For our first concept I partnered closely with a UX copywriter to redesign some of our client’s most common correspondence letters. Our goal was to recreate correspondence that aligned with their brand, that utilized best design practices and accessibility standards, and that simplified the legalistic language for claimants with the aid of Gemini. We redesigned a total of five pieces of correspondence by making several design decisions.
We sought to improve our client's correspondence in a number of ways. For example, we decided to prioritize information and clarity through the inclusion of a summary section and using plain language explanations. We also enhanced readability and navigation by utilizing clean layouts with ample white space and optimal font size and spacing. In order to provide clear structure we included visual cues and information grouping through the use of icons, font hierarchy, and grouping related information. We also ensured legal compliance and accessibility through the use of clear, complaint explanations and AA accessibility standards. Lastly, I created a style guide booklet for our client to act as a guide and ensure design consistency for any future documentation.
Low fidelity wireframes of the sample letters
High fidelity examples of the sample letters above followed by samples of the style guide
The Conclusion
To wrap this body of work, our lead researcher tested the updated correspondence letters with four users. Through these research insights we learned that overall participants found the letters “straightforward”, “concise”, and “easy to understand”. Participants also found the letters to be visually appealing, the text size and spacing more ideal for reading the content, and that the letters better prioritized the important information up front among many other positives. However, while we did receive a lot of great positive feedback there were also insights that called for areas of improvement. So while the updated letters were well received, more updates could be made to the letters in the future.
Next, we proceeded with the larger chosen concept where I paired with another designer to conceptualize the letter creation tool. This tool’s purpose would be to take the current correspondence process that our client used, marry that with our updated design layouts, and incorporate AI copywriting abilities. We began by creating user flows that addressed the creation of the letters from end to end. What followed was a constant feedback loop where we would ideate on a portion of the overall process and follow it with gaining team and client buy-in. We repeated this throughout the whole process of initial concept creation to low fidelity screens.
Finally, after advancing our low fidelity screens with the feedback from our client and team we created medium fidelity wireframes. Our lead researcher then proceeded to test our screens with various client employees to get their final nods of approval. We concluded this portion of the project by delivering to the client the medium fidelity wireframes that showcased the art of the possible.