Civic Tech
UX Research, Workshop Facilitation, Product Documentation & Strategy
TL;DR
Eight months after the US Department of Treasury launched the Emergency Rental Assistance (ERA) fund, counties on averaged allocated 10% their allocated funds. Allegheny County hit 50%+. I shaped the UX, content, and product design of the platform that processed $129 million in rental relief for nearly 19,000 households in total.
Tenant video of the application
Caseworker video of the case management
The government faced a mounting crisis as Americans dealt with deep rental debt and fear of eviction caused by work stoppage from the COVID-19 crisis.
In the first few months of the program, Allegheny County cobbled together Google Docs and Sheets to collect, review, and manage applications.
Govt Problem
Residents struggled to submit the required documents and properly complete the application using the cobbled tools and processes.
The poor usability and lack of visibility to their application status increased resident stress, frustration, and a general mistrust of the government.
Resident Problem
Caseworkers were overwhelmed by the volume of applicants, calls, and the general lack of tools to help them efficiently and effectively case-manage the crisis.
The disconnected processes and tooling led to too much context switching and cognitive overload.
Caseworker Problem
Goal
Design and build a user-friendly platform that (1) allows residents to successfully apply for rental assistance on their own and (2) help caseworkers review applications as a team.
Team
Core team:
1 PM
1 engineer lead
1 UI designer
External stakeholders:
Policy specialist
Caseworker
Caseworker manager
Service owner
Platform
Responsive web
Project Duration
2 months
My responsibilities
Research
Content design
Participatory design with UI design
Alignment with external stakeholders on the design
Understanding
Due to the constraints of the pandemic, we couldn’t interview applicants directly. Discovery research was conducted by running bi-weekly stakeholder calls and virtual workshops with external stakeholders. The insights gathered are represented in the personas:
Insights translated into designs and features
The research insights were used to inform product design, content, and features to ensure a user-friendly platform for both applicants and caseworkers. To develop these wireframes, I would share weekly progress through prototypes and usability tests.
A static message across the application to help applicants know what information they need to complete the application successfully.
A step-by-step guided workflow design to support application comfort and usability.
Provides applicants with visibility into the stage of their application, reducing stress and call volume.
Allows applicants to easily resolve missing documents without caseworker support, increasing efficiency while reducing call volume.
A bird's-eye view of the caseload to help caseworkers and supervisors work as a team.
A step-by-step guided workflow design to support application comfort and usability.
Key applicant data on each screen to support caseworkers who are context-switching often.
Caseworkers must claim a case to reduce errors and data corruption.
Outcomes
The Allegheny County emergency rental assistance website launched on March 15, 2021, and by August 30, the county had distributed roughly $30 million in rental relief across 5,000 households. During that time, the county allocated over 50% of its funds, compared to the national average of 10%.
From March 2021 through December 2022, nearly 19,000 households received payments, and $129 million was distributed.
Learnings
I learned a few things with this project:
How momentum grows when stakeholders are brought into the process through weekly workshops and prototyping activities.
How to leverage familiar UI patterns and UX flows to improve usability. Our designs and content strategy were inspired by TurboTax, which helped make the system more familiar for caseworkers and residents.
How impactful digital usability can be in making civic government systems efficient and effective for their users.
