Personal Project
Reimagining the unemployment application process
Role
UX designer
Time
2 week sprint in 2019
Problem
The coronavirus pandemic has left a significant mark on the American workforce. 26.5 million Americans have applied for unemployment benefits since mid-March — that’s roughly 12.5% of the U.S. population (up from the 3.5% recorded before the pandemic struck).
After finding myself included among those unemployed from covid-19, I began my own journey applying for benefits. The process was what one might expect from an online government form: full of perplexing language and excessive information:
The application inspired me to see if there might be a better way to go about helping people who’ve just become unemployed.
I decided to give myself 2 weeks and use design thinking principles to redesign the unemployment application process.
Here’s how it went…
Discovery
Hoping to learn more about the experiences of other recently unemployed folks, I decided to experiment with Instagram Stories as a means to gather survey data.
I designed a few slides that briefly introduced my project, along with 5 question-specific slides that utilized the ‘Polls’ and ‘Custom Questions’ stickers available within the Instagram app:
Thankfully, engagement was high at 118 participants and I was able to learn quite a bit about folks’ opinions regarding the process nationwide.
I organized the responses in Google Sheets and selected 5 participants for more in-depth conversations, probing further than the Instagram Survey questions allowed.
Learnings
64% of respondents (75 out of 118) had a negative experience applying for unemployment. After clustering the participants’ responses by theme, the problem areas became evident:
Lack of clarity
“It uses stuffy language so you second guess every answer you put down.”
“The verbiage could be a lot simpler and more direct”
Poor communication
“I wish they had a better way to communicate and confirm when I should get benefits."
“I kept waiting for status updates, just hoping that it worked.”
Frustrating forms
“There's no way to go back to edit a previous section without erasing everything in between.”
“It’d be better if the process was more streamlined, built for the average person to navigate.”
In addition to the survey responses, the in-depth conversations helped me uncover deeper, more emotionally-charged insights.
These individuals expressed feelings of fear and uncertainty. They were concerned about whether they’d be able to support their families on the amount they’d receive, in addition to having no clue as to when they’d receive it.
Many respondents also expressed feelings of shame, as if their current status was a reflection of them as a person:
“I feel shame at being on unemployment in the first place — and shame at the amount I’m getting when I expected to receive a lot less.”
Goals
The research stage defined the goals for this project. I kept asking myself the following questions:
How might I increase clarity and communication?
How might I reduce fear and uncertainty?
How might I eliminate shame?
Ideation
In order to understand the flow, I took a bit of time to map out a recently unemployed person’s journey — documenting each stage of unemployment, from being let go to receiving payment:
From there, it was easy to identify areas within the process that could benefit from improved communication or increased clarity.
One idea I had hoped to test was a dashboard that was specific to that person’s stage in the unemployment process. The screen would only display information relating to the user’s next steps.
Similarly, I wanted to test a “benefits status” section — a dedicated space that would aid in communicating to the user their approval status and where they stand with their benefits used:
Testing
After early feedback and confidence with the direction I was heading, I used Figma to build low-fidelity prototypes:
One of the ways I wanted to combat the feeling of shame was to dedicate screen space to explain how common unemployment is, and to provide calm reminders that it’ll be okay:
The response to this was overwhelmingly positive, with one participant saying:
“I really like this, because there’s a lot of shame around being unemployed… there’s a sense that if you’re getting benefits it must be because it’s your fault.”
To increase clarity and improve the application’s flow, I wanted to focus on the unemployment form itself. I created 5 distinct sections for all of the questions: a progress tracker, easy-to-access tooltips, and the ability to save and return later.
The first iteration didn’t test so well:
The participants struggled to save their progress, assuming the menu icon was reserved for global navigation and not their application progress.
For my second attempt, I decided to remove the menu when the user was engaged with the application process. I added the highly-recognized “more” icon (…) and moved the progress bars directly underneath navigation, hoping the grouping of components would help the user realize they relate to one another:
These adjustments tested very well, allowing folks to track their progress and exit the application process to return later if need be.
Final designs
After running through a few iteration cycles, it seemed as though I had a successful user flow on my hands. It was time to polish the design and enhance the visuals.
I used USWDS 2.0 (United States Web Design System) for visual inspiration, attempting to make the unemployment app feel like it fit in the government’s ecosystem of web offerings
United States Web Design System 2.0
Journey-specific dashboard
As the user progresses through the unemployment process, the app provides the details they need, as they need it:
Savable application
An application process that doesn’t force the user to finish in one sitting and allows for progress to be saved:
Benefits status
A straightforward section dedicated to informing the user where they stand with their benefits, from application status to remaining money allotted.
Concise and timely tooltips
Providing information to the user when it’s most valuable, in an easily-digestible manner:
Personal Project
Reimagining the unemployment application process
Role
UX designer
Time
2 week sprint in 2019
Problem
The coronavirus pandemic has left a significant mark on the American workforce. 26.5 million Americans have applied for unemployment benefits since mid-March — that’s roughly 12.5% of the U.S. population (up from the 3.5% recorded before the pandemic struck).
After finding myself included among those unemployed from covid-19, I began my own journey applying for benefits. The process was what one might expect from an online government form: full of perplexing language and excessive information:
The application inspired me to see if there might be a better way to go about helping people who’ve just become unemployed.
I decided to give myself 2 weeks and use design thinking principles to redesign the unemployment application process.
Here’s how it went…
Discovery
Hoping to learn more about the experiences of other recently unemployed folks, I decided to experiment with Instagram Stories as a means to gather survey data.
I designed a few slides that briefly introduced my project, along with 5 question-specific slides that utilized the ‘Polls’ and ‘Custom Questions’ stickers available within the Instagram app:
Thankfully, engagement was high at 118 participants and I was able to learn quite a bit about folks’ opinions regarding the process nationwide.
I organized the responses in Google Sheets and selected 5 participants for more in-depth conversations, probing further than the Instagram Survey questions allowed.
Learnings
64% of respondents (75 out of 118) had a negative experience applying for unemployment. After clustering the participants’ responses by theme, the problem areas became evident:
Lack of clarity
“It uses stuffy language so you second guess every answer you put down.”
“The verbiage could be a lot simpler and more direct”
Poor communication
“I wish they had a better way to communicate and confirm when I should get benefits."
“I kept waiting for status updates, just hoping that it worked.”
Frustrating forms
“There's no way to go back to edit a previous section without erasing everything in between.”
“It’d be better if the process was more streamlined, built for the average person to navigate.”
In addition to the survey responses, the in-depth conversations helped me uncover deeper, more emotionally-charged insights.
These individuals expressed feelings of fear and uncertainty. They were concerned about whether they’d be able to support their families on the amount they’d receive, in addition to having no clue as to when they’d receive it.
Many respondents also expressed feelings of shame, as if their current status was a reflection of them as a person:
“I feel shame at being on unemployment in the first place — and shame at the amount I’m getting when I expected to receive a lot less.”
Goals
The research stage defined the goals for this project. I kept asking myself the following questions:
How might I increase clarity and communication?
How might I reduce fear and uncertainty?
How might I eliminate shame?
Ideation
In order to understand the flow, I took a bit of time to map out a recently unemployed person’s journey — documenting each stage of unemployment, from being let go to receiving payment:
From there, it was easy to identify areas within the process that could benefit from improved communication or increased clarity.
One idea I had hoped to test was a dashboard that was specific to that person’s stage in the unemployment process. The screen would only display information relating to the user’s next steps.
Similarly, I wanted to test a “benefits status” section — a dedicated space that would aid in communicating to the user their approval status and where they stand with their benefits used:
Testing
After early feedback and confidence with the direction I was heading, I used Figma to build low-fidelity prototypes:
One of the ways I wanted to combat the feeling of shame was to dedicate screen space to explain how common unemployment is, and to provide calm reminders that it’ll be okay:
The response to this was overwhelmingly positive, with one participant saying:
“I really like this, because there’s a lot of shame around being unemployed… there’s a sense that if you’re getting benefits it must be because it’s your fault.”
To increase clarity and improve the application’s flow, I wanted to focus on the unemployment form itself. I created 5 distinct sections for all of the questions: a progress tracker, easy-to-access tooltips, and the ability to save and return later.
The first iteration didn’t test so well:
The participants struggled to save their progress, assuming the menu icon was reserved for global navigation and not their application progress.
For my second attempt, I decided to remove the menu when the user was engaged with the application process. I added the highly-recognized “more” icon (…) and moved the progress bars directly underneath navigation, hoping the grouping of components would help the user realize they relate to one another:
These adjustments tested very well, allowing folks to track their progress and exit the application process to return later if need be.
Final designs
After running through a few iteration cycles, it seemed as though I had a successful user flow on my hands. It was time to polish the design and enhance the visuals.
I used USWDS 2.0 (United States Web Design System) for visual inspiration, attempting to make the unemployment app feel like it fit in the government’s ecosystem of web offerings
United States Web Design System 2.0
Journey-specific dashboard
As the user progresses through the unemployment process, the app provides the details they need, as they need it:
Savable application
An application process that doesn’t force the user to finish in one sitting and allows for progress to be saved:
Benefits status
A straightforward section dedicated to informing the user where they stand with their benefits, from application status to remaining money allotted.
Concise and timely tooltips
Providing information to the user when it’s most valuable, in an easily-digestible manner:
Personal Project
Reimagining the unemployment application process
Role
UX designer
Time
2 week sprint in 2019
Problem
The coronavirus pandemic has left a significant mark on the American workforce. 26.5 million Americans have applied for unemployment benefits since mid-March — that’s roughly 12.5% of the U.S. population (up from the 3.5% recorded before the pandemic struck).
After finding myself included among those unemployed from covid-19, I began my own journey applying for benefits. The process was what one might expect from an online government form: full of perplexing language and excessive information:
The application inspired me to see if there might be a better way to go about helping people who’ve just become unemployed.
I decided to give myself 2 weeks and use design thinking principles to redesign the unemployment application process.
Here’s how it went…
Discovery
Hoping to learn more about the experiences of other recently unemployed folks, I decided to experiment with Instagram Stories as a means to gather survey data.
I designed a few slides that briefly introduced my project, along with 5 question-specific slides that utilized the ‘Polls’ and ‘Custom Questions’ stickers available within the Instagram app:
Thankfully, engagement was high at 118 participants and I was able to learn quite a bit about folks’ opinions regarding the process nationwide.
I organized the responses in Google Sheets and selected 5 participants for more in-depth conversations, probing further than the Instagram Survey questions allowed.
Learnings
64% of respondents (75 out of 118) had a negative experience applying for unemployment. After clustering the participants’ responses by theme, the problem areas became evident:
Lack of clarity
“It uses stuffy language so you second guess every answer you put down.”
“The verbiage could be a lot simpler and more direct”
Poor communication
“I wish they had a better way to communicate and confirm when I should get benefits."
“I kept waiting for status updates, just hoping that it worked.”
Frustrating forms
“There's no way to go back to edit a previous section without erasing everything in between.”
“It’d be better if the process was more streamlined, built for the average person to navigate.”
In addition to the survey responses, the in-depth conversations helped me uncover deeper, more emotionally-charged insights.
These individuals expressed feelings of fear and uncertainty. They were concerned about whether they’d be able to support their families on the amount they’d receive, in addition to having no clue as to when they’d receive it.
Many respondents also expressed feelings of shame, as if their current status was a reflection of them as a person:
“I feel shame at being on unemployment in the first place — and shame at the amount I’m getting when I expected to receive a lot less.”
Goals
The research stage defined the goals for this project. I kept asking myself the following questions:
How might I increase clarity and communication?
How might I reduce fear and uncertainty?
How might I eliminate shame?
Ideation
In order to understand the flow, I took a bit of time to map out a recently unemployed person’s journey — documenting each stage of unemployment, from being let go to receiving payment:
From there, it was easy to identify areas within the process that could benefit from improved communication or increased clarity.
One idea I had hoped to test was a dashboard that was specific to that person’s stage in the unemployment process. The screen would only display information relating to the user’s next steps.
Similarly, I wanted to test a “benefits status” section — a dedicated space that would aid in communicating to the user their approval status and where they stand with their benefits used:
Testing
After early feedback and confidence with the direction I was heading, I used Figma to build low-fidelity prototypes:
One of the ways I wanted to combat the feeling of shame was to dedicate screen space to explain how common unemployment is, and to provide calm reminders that it’ll be okay:
The response to this was overwhelmingly positive, with one participant saying:
“I really like this, because there’s a lot of shame around being unemployed… there’s a sense that if you’re getting benefits it must be because it’s your fault.”
To increase clarity and improve the application’s flow, I wanted to focus on the unemployment form itself. I created 5 distinct sections for all of the questions: a progress tracker, easy-to-access tooltips, and the ability to save and return later.
The first iteration didn’t test so well:
The participants struggled to save their progress, assuming the menu icon was reserved for global navigation and not their application progress.
For my second attempt, I decided to remove the menu when the user was engaged with the application process. I added the highly-recognized “more” icon (…) and moved the progress bars directly underneath navigation, hoping the grouping of components would help the user realize they relate to one another:
These adjustments tested very well, allowing folks to track their progress and exit the application process to return later if need be.
Final designs
After running through a few iteration cycles, it seemed as though I had a successful user flow on my hands. It was time to polish the design and enhance the visuals.
I used USWDS 2.0 (United States Web Design System) for visual inspiration, attempting to make the unemployment app feel like it fit in the government’s ecosystem of web offerings
United States Web Design System 2.0
Journey-specific dashboard
As the user progresses through the unemployment process, the app provides the details they need, as they need it:
Savable application
An application process that doesn’t force the user to finish in one sitting and allows for progress to be saved:
Benefits status
A straightforward section dedicated to informing the user where they stand with their benefits, from application status to remaining money allotted.
Concise and timely tooltips
Providing information to the user when it’s most valuable, in an easily-digestible manner: