The Team
UX Designer
Me
Project Manager
Communications Director
Deputy Director
The Client
The Missouri Department of Social Services
The Tools
Figma
Survey Monkey
Qualtrics
Google Analytics
BACKGROUND
User centered approach
The Missouri Department of Social Services (DSS) is responsible for essential services for citizens such as food assistance, Medicaid, and family services. DSS engaged our team to create user journey maps and personas to better understand and address real needs of the people who use their website. The purpose of these deliverables was to serve as foundational guides for the next phase of the website redesign.
users
listening to the users
In order to ensure we were addressing the needs of real users, we conducted three research methodologies to inform these deliverables.
stakeholder survey
We sent out a survey that was completed by 909 stakeholders across 10 divisions at DSS. This gave us initial insights into the goals and challenges for users of the DSS website. These insights gave us a foundational understanding of the site and identified areas to focus our efforts on.
FOCUS GROUPS
We held 3 focus groups with DSS employees who work directly with citizens who call in with questions about services they offer. We gained a deep understanding of the pain points citizens face with the current website.
SITE FEEDBACK DATA
Qualtrics collects feedback directly from site visitors through a “Give Feedback” button located on the website. This quantifiable feedback is valuable because it is directly from users.
user research
key takeaways
We conducted user interviews to understand the user perspective and challenge assumptions we formed about how they would use the engagement score. We interviewed 2 recruiters and a sourcer. We asked them to walk us through their daily workflow and voice their pain points.
insight #1
Knowing when the last engagement was is more important than what the engagement was
Users have difficulty finding what they need on the website. Information is not where they expect it to be.*
*Stakeholder Survey
insight #2
The most important piece of information about a candidate is if they are interviewing
Users have trouble understanding government terms and acronyms. They are confused by the many different divisions and what they each do.*
*Focus Groups
insight #3
Handing off notes from the sourcer to the recruiter is time consuming
The majority of site visitors use a mobile device. Many people applying for benefits do not have a desktop computer and rely on smartphones.*
*Stakeholder Survey and Site Feedback Data
insight #4
68% users are unable to complete the task they came to the website to complete.
*Site Feedback Data
insight #5
The most important piece of information about a candidate is if they are interviewing
Users are not provided with estimated application processing times. This leads them to call and check their application status and makes it difficult for state employees to manage their workload.
*Focus Groups
insight #6
Handing off notes from the sourcer to the recruiter is time consuming
Citizens applying for benefits are not aware of all the programs that could help them. It is easier for state employees to process applications if a citizen applies to multiple benefits at once.
*Stakeholder Survey and Focus Groups
ux artifacts
personas
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ux artifacts
user journey maps
