How can we make government websites more pleasant experiences?

Add-a-Feature:

CalFresh Dashboard

Voting, renewing a drivers licenses, registering a marriage, obtaining a passport- We all go through a government process at some point. Yet…most would agree that government processes are unsavory experiences, at best.

CalFresh is California's food benefits program, and like many other government services, it is a very important service, but not particularly user-friendly. This add-a-feature project explores a way to simplify the food benefits digital tools by adding a personal dashboard to the existing GetCalFresh website.

  • Independently directed, with guidance from mentor

  • UX Research, UX Design

  • 4 weeks, 80 hours

Problem:

How might we create an online portal for CalFresh recipients to access all personal information related to their benefits?

?

Solution:

A dashboard on the GetCalFresh.org website for users to efficiently access and update their personal information related to food benefits online.

BACKGROUND

Food insecurity is a major issue across the country. While states & municipalities have native food assistance programs, obtaining and maintaining these benefits can be obscure processes...especially in a time of need.

This project was born out of my personal experience and frustration with California's food assistance program, CalFresh. From the unclear registration process, to the black hole of submitted documents, to the poor communication about eligibility- food aid has, at times, caused me more concern than relief. And I discovered that I was not alone in my frustration - these are common issues for all food assistance beneficiaries. Food is necessary, and its access should be made simple.

GOALS

  • Understand what information CalFresh users value most

  • Understand how best to organize & consolidate existing information

  • Add features that enhance existing/new applicants’ CalFresh beneficiaries’ digital experience

CONSTRAINTS/LIMITATIONS

  • Designing within existing brand guidelines of GetCalFresh.org

  • Understanding what information is/is not intended to be on GetCalFresh.org

  • Finding User Interview Participants: I personally don't know many CalFresh users (besides myself), and this is a sensitive topic to talk to people about.

RESEARCH

SECONDARY RESEARCH

A little context - the U.S.’ food assistance program is called SNAP (Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program), and each state adopts its own specific program. California’s food assistance program is called CalFresh.

However, if you are a recipient of CalFresh, you have to visit several different websites, each with different purposes, to obtain information about your CalFresh benefits. See below for the 5 different websites I navigate as a recipient of food stamps in San Francisco.

I then explored some other states’ food assistance program websites to compare what others offered. Some offer advantages not available in CalFresh’s websites, but overall, they are similarly limited in digital access to personal benefit information.

PRIMARY RESEARCH

Now that I had familiarized myself with multiple states’ food benefit programs, I needed first-hand data to validate real users’ common pain points and understand what tools would be most beneficial to them. This turned out to be one of my biggest challenges! I do not know too many people personally who have food benefits, and it is not an easy topic to talk about with strangers. Thus, since I wasn’t able to locate many people with food benefits, I spoke with anyone who partook in other government services to understand general frustrations, and used other streams of data besides one-on-one interviews:

Reddit's forums may not seem like the most reliable method of research, but it gave me a broad overview of people's unfiltered FAQs. Reddit also failed to provide me with interviewees, BUT a (seemingly snarky, but helpful) suggestion of going to the district office and talking to people in person resulted in some of the most valuable insights.

I was located in Washington, DC (not California), when I was conducting research, so I visited the DC Department of Human Services. Though constituents have a slightly different benefits programs, speaking with people in the field about their actual struggles and tactics of combating them was tremendously helpful. Furthermore, it was a reminder of how critically digital tools improve people’s experiences: the alternative - sitting in line at government offices - is neither fun nor efficient!

KEY TAKEAWAYS OF USER RESEARCH

Common challenges of government processes:

Lack of clarity, wondering if you did it right, not getting a straight answer from someone, antiquated systems, lengthy processes

- Government process applicants

To summarize, here are the main themes from the research:

PERSONA

By consolidating the user data I had gathered, I created a persona, Danial, to help me visualize the needs of a California food beneficiary. Danial is a college student who recently signed up for benefits, and is navigating the process, without fully knowing what is expected of him. Thinking in his shoes helped me keep track of how he would feel using different parts of the CalFresh website:

IDEATION

It was clear that there are flaws in the food benefits program websites, but I needed to pinpoint where exactly to start. My final decision was to improve upon GetCalFresh.org - the platform where people apply for benefits and submit documents to maintain these benefits.

  • The GetCalFresh website was recently updated by a third party, Code for America, and users love the modern and straightforward interface. Its current functions: (1) apply for benefits with an easy-to-use, multi-step form and (2) allow current users to submit documentation to maintain their benefits.

    But beyond the two main functions, and a chat feature (which allows correspondence with CalFresh representatives, who are often slow to reply), all the other important processes related to this program are scattered across various government websites, or require phone/in-person communication. I wanted to improve this appreciated, but limited platform by creating a single site for all matters related to a beneficiary's use of CalFresh.

Taking what I heard from user interviews, I translated their needs into the following problem statements:

To understand how GetCalFresh could best serve its recipients, I referred back to: “What would Danial need?” A journey map really helped me to put myself in Danial’s scenario throughout the entire process of obtaining and maintaining CalFresh benefits.

FEATURE ROADMAP

Through the journey map, I discovered that what Danial wants most is a way to overview his benefit situation, communication about anything he needs to do upkeep his benefits, and ways to track the documents he sends to CalFresh. Based on his needs, and what I had seen in my comparative analysis, I prioritized features, temporarily thinking beyond the immediate concerns for future iterations.

Ultimately I focused on the Priority 1 features for this particular project.

The 3 Main Objectives:

SITE STRUCTURE

To understand where these new features would fit within the existing GetCalFresh website, I created a site structure. The new dashboard would be a standalone addition to the existing GetCalFresh website. While the existing website’s purpose is for users to sign up for CalFresh benefits, the path to signing up for a new dashboard needs to be clear that this is a separate sign up for managing those benefits. It would be accessed through distinct sign in/sign up buttons on the current landing page:

USER FLOWS

With the 3 main user objectives in mind, I developed 4 key user flows:

  1. Sign Up/Sign In to account

  2. View/Edit account and notification settings (ex: get notified when a new deposit has occurred)

  3. View/Edit benefit info (ex: view changes to monthly deposits, view transaction history, add changes to household, add changes in income)

  4. Manage Documents (ex: view past applications, submit new paystubs)

WIREFRAMES

Next, I dove into wireframes. The best references I found for considering the presentation of reminders and document editing features were banking apps and educational platforms. Some of my sketches turned out to be just as convoluted as the banking apps I use, with too much information and options in one place! I kept iterating to make the pages as simple, with the least amount of info & most functionality.

Since the UI was already developed in GetCalFresh’s website, I streamlined the process from low-fidelity wireframes to mid/high-fidelity and quickly applied existing UI elements.

SELECTION OF MID-FIDELITY WIREFRAMES

UI DESIGN

Unlike most government websites, GetCalFresh’s updated website is uniquely light-hearted and intuitive, and users love that. How do they do it?- Through bright colors, friendly & familiar graphics + emojis, and simple language. I integrated these UI standards in my addition, and created a few more icons and blocks in line with the existing elements.

Existing Pages

Existing UI Elements

Proposed UI Elements

USABILITY TESTING

After developing the high-fidelity wireframes, it was time to see whether my ‘improvements’ were workable for real users. Similar to my struggle with recruiting user interviewees, it was a challenge to locate the target user group of California food beneficiaries, so I tested out the prototype with 6 participants, one with experience with food stamps, the rest with experience using other government websites.

PRIORITY REVISIONS

1. Sign In

Problem: Users assumed that the ‘Apply Now’ button, which is for new applicants registering for food benefits, would take them to the new dashboard registration.

Solution: I added a separate link below the ‘Apply Now’ button. I also changed the ‘Sign In’ button in the navigation to include ‘Sign Up’, as this is where participants predominantly expected to find the Sign Up function.

2. Dashboard Account Set-Up

Problem: I made one of the same mistakes that government websites make: ask too many redundant questions! Users did not understand why they would have to re-enter information they had already provided for registering for food benefits.

Solution: I reduced the number of pages in the sign-up flow to only ask for information that would be necessary for linking the new dashboard feature with the existing food benefits account registration.

3. Dashboard Announcements

Problem: Users claimed that they would want important announcements at the top of their dashboards, rather than scrolling/searching for it at the bottom of the page.

Solution: The announcements were moved up to the top with the Reminders, concentrated with the rest of the critical feed of information.

4. Completing Tasks

Problem: The ‘I want to…’ button was very popular. Most reverted to this button for quick links to important functions, and wanted more important features located here.

Solution: The ‘I want to…’ dropdown now includes more important features, such as account management features.

5. Edit Document Format

Problem: Users liked being able to see the paper form versions of documents they were updating, but were thrown off by suddenly filling out a sheet, and preferred filling out documents using the multi-step forms.

Solution: Document editing was changed to multi-step forms, consistent to the format across the existing website.

SELECTION OF FINAL HIGH-FIDELITY WIREFRAMES & PROTOTYPE

Simple Sign-Up Flow

New account sign-up flow emulates the style of simple language and graphics from the existing GetCalFresh website

Personal Dashboard

A dashboard that shows all of the important information to a CalFresh user: current balance, spending summary, important announcements, and reminders/to-do lists.

Transaction History & Resources

Breakdown of recent transactions and deposits + analysis of spending for users to keep track of their CalFresh usage. Food map to find local food resources. These resources are currently available on other third-party apps, but not part of the official CalFresh system, and users would like for them to be consolidated.

Update Documents

A document manager that shows all past submitted documents, and follows a similar multi-step form as the existing to upload new documents. This gives users more awareness and control over their past and upcoming documents, which is currently lacking.

In hindsight, I might have held off on developing to high-fidelity before usability testing, to verify whether users would be able to use the new features without the aid of visual cues.

CONCLUSIONS

Working on a project that affects a large population of Americans, including myself, had personal gravity. It inspired me to get more involved in improving digital government tools - a source of much frustration, and often fear, but utmost necessity. I hope to continue working on civic projects that make daily life more seamless, rather than inducing stress.

Challenges:

  • Finding real users to interview and test. I did the best I could with the time I had, and utilized more methods than I have in the past.

  • Lack of information about what type of information can and cannot be provided on this type of website, and why this type of basic functionality has not already existed. Is there a reason why information is currently scattered across so many websites.

Next Steps:

  • Prototype more pages to clarify interactions and flows- such as connecting the CalFresh with other related government programs

  • Develop a stronger FAQ/communication platform between case workers and beneficiaries, as this was beneficiaries’ other major priority

  • Develop responsive design to a higher fidelity for mobile/ tablet screens

Given the positive reception to the idea, I think this idea would make the CalFresh program more user-friendly, and could influence other government programs.

Thank you for reading!