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CASE STUDY
Overview
Throughout the year, the Department of Labor conducts monthly evaluations for Claims Examiners who assist U.S. workers by reviewing claimant forms. The standards for these monthly evaluations are updated annually by the LEAD Admin based on negotiations between the federal government and the CE unions. Our team updates requirements in the backend, but now DOL wants to manage that themselves.
Role
User Experience
UI Design
Prototyping
Workshop Facilitation
Deliverables
Market Research
User flow
Prototypes
Time
3 Months
Challenge
The Department of Labor's ECOMP website needs a new feature that encompasses two primary functionalities: enabling new admin users to duplicate and customize existing Performance Review standards and giving them the ability to prioritize case types within review elements on a monthly basis.
The challenge lies in reverse engineering a platform that provides flexibility while facilitating changes to standards and their associated back-end data. A key obstacle is adjusting for dynamic variables which change based on legislative decisions made by Congress during a fiscal review year.
Solution
The central focus of this project was flexibility, with the primary goal of empowering users to swiftly update standards as needed. To achieve this, we integrated pre-populated tasks and an intuitive editing interface, creating a streamlined and user-friendly experience.
Additionally, the development of a dynamic dashboard ensures adaptability for future users, allowing them to meet their evolving requirements.
Together, these solutions lay the groundwork for a user-centric environment that fosters seamless interactions and accommodates the diverse needs of both current and prospective users.
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UNDERSTANDING THE PROBLEM
Discovery
Business Perspective
A simplified transition process is needed for elements to be converted to a new standard, eliminating the need for manual adjustments on the backend. In addition to hindering efficiency, the current procedure results in increased costs, since the development team must dedicate resources each year to implement changes manually.
Business Goals:
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These designs should serve as a foundation for our future vision of expanding the scope to include additional employee types in our standards review process.
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We will only utilize the information that is already integrated into existing standards in this project and won't need to collaborate with the original database (iFECS).
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All changes must be able to fit into the current PDF format at the end of this process.
User Perspective
Users may be feeling overwhelmed by the volume of information they need to update. Time constraints are a significant concern, as is the need to ensure that we can activate these standards at the right moment. “We must find a solution to effectively communicate this information to our team and facilitate the release of these new standards.”
User Goals:
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Access a Dashboard to manage their tasks.
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Address changes in the most straightforward manner.
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Create standards for a new fiscal year by starting with previous standards and making necessary edits.
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Prioritize case types for each element throughout the fiscal year.
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Receive alerts throughout the process to make sure that all variables are validated.
Research + Definition
Key Insights
Simplicity: Create an uncluttered, intuitive, and easily navigable user experience.
Pre-Population: Aggregate information from other sources to save the user from entering information we already know.
Scalability: Create a flexible framework that can adapt and expand to accommodate the evolving needs and preferences of future users.
Empower User Choice: Design to provide users with the flexibility and autonomy to answer in a way that best suits their preferences and needs.
Enable Edibility: Prioritize user control by allowing them to easily edit and update information as needed, fostering a sense of ownership and accuracy.
EXPLORE
User Flow
To accommodate changing user needs and preferences, how can we create a user flow that is flexible and scalable?
​User flows that cater to evolving user needs and preferences require a comprehensive approach. The elements and data we received from the client were used to develop a user journey mapping workshop based on the audience's needs and expectations. This research informed the creation of a highly adaptable and user-centric user flow.
The end result was a user flow that not only met the immediate needs of our users but also had the potential to grow and evolve alongside their changing preferences. It serves as a dynamic and future-ready framework that aligns perfectly with our initial challenge of creating a flexible and scalable user flow.
EXPLORE
The Prototype
How might we create standard edits that are easily digestible and allow users to modify only the necessary elements while planning for future structural changes?
Our goal was to simplify the user interface so that standard edits are presented clearly and easily. As a result, complex information was broken down into smaller, easily digestible sections, making it easy for users to find and modify the specific elements they need.
Our intuitive editing system prevents unnecessary modifications and minimizes errors by allowing users to make only the changes they need.
Ultimately, our design approach streamlines standards editing by offering a user-centered and forward-looking solution, and it is well-prepared to accommodate future structural changes.
OUTCOME
Future-Ready
Scalability
We provided a design solution that caters to current requirements but also anticipates structural changes in the future.
This means ensuring that our standard editing process is capable of adding, deleting, or modifying content, including language adjustments.
The approach prioritizes scalability, allowing for a dynamic and user-centric system that can evolve and align with the evolving needs of users, making it well-prepared for the challenges of tomorrow.
OUTCOME
Simplicity as the Core
Crafting an effortlessly navigable user experience simplifies editing standards for a more digestible experience.
A streamlined user interface and optimized user journey make it easy for users to locate and modify specific elements they need using the tab navigation bar to progress freely through the interface.
OUTCOME
Pre-populating
for a Head Start
Efficiently gather and reuse existing information from previous standards to eliminate redundant data entry.
We streamlined the editing process by gathering and reusing information from previous standards and minimized error potential.
This will give the users a head start when creating new standards and if there are only a few changes needed, it will cut down the process by 70%.
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OUTCOME
Empowering User Choice
Ensure user empowerment and control by allowing them to customize the interface based on their preferences.
The main goal is to give users control over the information they require, allowing them to edit it quickly and easily. The process ensures the highest level of accuracy and fosters ownership.
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