Digitizing application for social assistance

The City of Haarlem started a project to digitize all their online forms. One of these forms is the application form for social assistance. Social assistance is financial help from the municipality for people who don't have enough money to live on.
The project team working on it, asked me to think along about how the paper version of the application could be converted to a digital version. Our goal? To simplify and speed up the process, both for citizens and civil servants. To reduce the number of errors and receive the correct data faster. So that the applicant does not have to wait unnecessarily long for the assessment of their application.

My role

As the UX Designer on this project, I guided the redesign of the transition from a paper to a digital application form for social assistance. My tasks included running user research, re-designing form questions to increase usability, and engaging various teams and stakeholders.

Responsibilities

In this project, I worked closely with the project leader digitalization, the team work and income, the web editorial team and the internal software house to come up with a design that matched the digital environment of the City of Haarlem in terms of content, technology and communication. During the process, I iteratively worked on a prototype that served as the basis for further development.

Timeline

2023-24

Team

The municipality's project core team, Haarlem project leader digitalization, development and various external stakeholders.

Screenshot of the prototype showing the overview of data.

Understanding the problem and getting citizens involved

I first want to understand what the problem is that needs to be solved and what user groups are involved. What is their motivation? And what are they potentially running into?
In this project - with limited time - we used "proto-personas" with the team to empathize and ask stakeholders the right questions about the process and product. Based on several sketchy ideas, I built a prototype on paper and later in software.
Ultimately, the prototype was taken from mid- to hi-fidelity by the art director and with input from the content provider and served as the basis for further development by the development team.

Illustration of the Double Diamond process.

Stap 1

Discover

The request for the redesign came to me at a time when an initial functional design had been delivered, based on the paper form.Together with the team, we identified user needs and issues, through research, and got a clear picture of the user group and the current process. We gathered useful insights and common bottlenecks from previous projects and their experiences with citizens. We received additional input and suggestions for improvements from the Participation Council and experts by experience. We also drew on knowledge of best practices from both home and abroad.A major concern turned out to be the length and complexity of the form and the short period of time in which users would have to fill in data without being logged out, as described here in a column by a resident from Haarlem.

Column from Haarlems Dagblad that captures quite accurate what many customers experience when filling out online forms: too long and not enough time.

Step 2

Define

The collected information and ideas from the discovery phase refined and concretized into sketches and proposals. Together with the team, we identified the most important insights about users and processes and prioritized the most important adjustments to the first functional design.

A spreadsheet with the definition of all fields in the form. Difficult for an outsider to grasp and impossible to test with civilians.

Part of the original process definition, shown in a spreadsheet.

Step 3

Develop

In this phase, I developed various solution directions by means of sketches, user flows, wireframes, and mid-fidelity prototypes. These concepts were tested with users and assessed with stakeholders to make an informed choice for the final design.

Flows

I created an extensive step-by-step plan in a tool like Typeform to provide insight into how questions initially followed each other. Is the dialogue correct?

Sketches

Dividing the form into chapters, interim storage and a clear way to report household members, for example. Outlined for later elaboration.

Sketch of a flow explaining the concept of dividing a large form into smaller parts.

Part of a flow created in Typeform to get an idea of the possible complexity.

Screen with a number of buttons where a prototype can be started.

Step 4

Deliver

In the final phase of the design process, I combined the ideas. This makes it tangible for the rest of the team, but also for the end user. We used the feedback to further refine and improve the design.

Prototype

I did the prototyping with a GOV.UK web kit on the one hand, but ultimately with a tool that allows rich interactions, allows input and can follow conditional paths. Hence Axure RP. Not a new tool, but valuable in these cases.

Testen

We presented a hi-fidelity prototype in several rounds to citizens who could relate to the situation of the target group or belong to the target group. The results were shared with the team and led to further adjustments.

Screenshot of the beginning of the form recording the status for each chapter.

Bekijk prototype (Axure RP 10)

Result of notes taken during one of the sessions. Written on a whiteboard.

Example of a dialogue where users are given the opportunity to continue later and save the input in the meantime.

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