Environmental Permission Portal Redesign
A fresh new service that allows users to apply for and manage the environmental permits with a few clicks.
Timeline
April - December 2022
Team
1 Senior UX Designer, 1 Junior UX Designer (me), 1 Business Analyst, 1 Product Manager, 1 Front-end Developer
Tools
Figma, Miro, Excel
My Role(s):
User research, workshops facilitator, usability testing, mock-ups design, QA
Established research operation procedures, Provided outside-of-box ideas and implemented them
My Contribution
Overview
What is an environmental permission portal?
The Environmental Permission Portal is a web-based platform facilitating the application, submission, and management of environmental permissions for both individuals and organizations in the province of Ontario. It serves as the primary revenue-generating platform for the ministry.
The Outcome
Redesigned the UI and enhanced the accessibility standards
Before:
Outdated UI
Confusing language with jargon
Small font and too much white space
After:
Adhere to government of Ontario’s design system
Use conversational language
Better visual hierarchy
The Challenge
Ontario’s environmental permission portal faces adoption challenges
0%
User retention rate, which means, most site users would never used the platform for the second time
100%
of the first-time users called the ministry
Many ministry’s partners and business clients have expressed reluctance to utilize this platform, while others have voiced their resistance to adopting it.
Empathize
Stakeholders Interview
Why?
In addition to the heuristics evaluation, we wanted to further dive deep into the problem space to explore the root causes of why people refused to use the service and what they need.
The Process
120-min one-on-one interviews
10 external users
4 internal stakeholders (customer services team)
135 pain points into 3 themes.
The Findings
9/10 external users took longer than 30 minutes just to create an account.
Users did not know what to enter and why there was an error.
Consultant users complained about going back and forth with their clients when they needed to link their accounts to work on the behalf of their clients.
Customer services team mentioned they had received overwhelmingly high volume of calls everyday.
Pain Points
Account registration process is cumbersome and complicated
“If you don’t need it, don’t ask for it.” - Participant 2
Too much jargon and the wording is confusing
“No help text is helpful. I had to call.” - Participant 4
Lots of back-and-forth between users and their representatives
“I’m afraid my clients get annoyed.” - Participant 10
User Segments
The platform was configured to support 3 types of users to complete their tasks accordingly. Therefore, after interviewing different types of users, we listed out all types of users and their obstacles, wants and needs to better understand how to tackle each user flow.
Service Blueprint
I built the service blueprint to visualize the work flow and better present the areas of improvement. Two potential opportunities to enhance the service efficiency and user experience:
Which type of account should users create?
Account recovery process is too long.
Link the accounts requires too many back-and-forth between clients and consultants.
Needs Statements
Translate Existing Pain Points to the design principles
Users need clear instructions to select the right account type so that they do not go through the wrong process.
Users need a streamlined account linking process so that they do not bother their clients or representatives frequently.
Users need approachable error messages when duplicate accounts exist so that they can recover their accounts easily.
Ideation
Brainstorming Workshops
Why?
To validate and iterate on the design principles
To bring everyone across multiple teams on board
The Outcomes
Tried to facilitate a typical UX ideation workshop at first but…
Teams were not familiar with design thinking process
Participants were simply complaining about the product instead of coming up with ideas
Co-design Workshops
Why?
To accommodate the teams operating with the low UX maturity
To provide participants with more guidance on how to brainstorm ideas instead of complaining
To continue brainstorming for more specific ideas
The Tailored Process
Icebreaker
Pain points and design requirement overview
Guide on how to use Miro
Guide on what kinds of ideas can be generated (flow chart, stickies, screenshots of the existing products)
Screenshots of each screen of the website
Brainstorming
Streamline the user flow
Before
After
Based on the feedback and outcomes we got from the co-design workshops, we updated the user flows.
Successfully eliminate the extra steps that require email communication between clients and consultants. The new process allows consultants who know the system better to take the lead but also make sure clients are the ones that do the final sign-off.
Design
Implement a conversational interface
Many users were confused about which account to register for, especially between business and individual accounts. Some individual farmers believed they should register as "individuals," but the platform categorized them as "business" due to their legal status as sole proprietors.
To simplify this, we introduced a conversational interface inspired by the approach used by IRCC (Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada). This involves asking users a series of questions to determine the most suitable account type for them. At the end of the process, we recommend an account type and provide users with a checklist of required documents they need to prepare for the account setup.
Representative initiates the access request
After co-design workshops, our stakeholders agreed to assign more tasks to representatives. Representatives are hired to act on behalf of clients, making them well-versed in the application process and familiar with the platform. They also have a better understanding of the necessary access requirements compared to their clients. By having representatives initiate the account linkage process, we ease the burden on clients and empower representatives to control access levels, thus streamlining the application process.
Business user only needs to approve or reject the access request
Now what the business left to do is to review the access request and approve it if appropriate.
Have the account validation happen earlier in the process
We've improved the user registration process by moving the account validation to the first step. Before, users often faced frustration because issues with their information were discovered only at the end. Now, by checking eligibility right from the start, we've eliminated these problems and made registration smoother.
Reorganize and redesign the content
Removed the unnecessary step and options
Broke down important information into pieces
Had tooltips and help text available upfront
Rewrite and restructure the error message
Reorganize the instructions
Relabel and simplify confusing terms
Rewrite and restructure the status message
Test the mock-ups
15
walkthrough sessions
96%
user satisfaction rate
About the session:
Took place online on Teams
120-minute mock-ups walkthrough
6 representative users, 5 business users and 4 individual users
Pause after each screen and collect feedback
Allow “think out loud” as the participants go through the screens
80%
reduce in misclick rate
Why a walkthrough instead of usability testing?
Limited time and resources to complete a clickable prototype.
The platform is complicated in terms of different use cases and scenarios.
Controlled the use cases and scenarios to better gather feedback regarding specific screens.
Constraints and revisions
When gathering the feedback, I also noticed that there were lots of constraints to consider for a public service. Designing a government’s platform needs lots of considerations in privacy, cybersecurity, and legal policies.
CRA (Canada Revenue Agency) policies
Clients’ privacy issues
Legal issues when renaming labels
For an error page, I can’t signify which input field is wrong and be transparent to help users to recover from their errors because of CRA’s policies to prevent users from gaming the system.
Final Prototype
Account Recovery
Link the Accounts
Account Registration
Learnings
Learned when to say “No” and when to make compromises
Learned to find a balance among business needs, user needs and technical needs. Designing a service is not only about UI design.
UX design process is NEVER LINEAR as we learned in the textbook; in reality, I need to consider many constraints and adjust the tools I’m using on the go
There is no right or wrong design. There is only the design that fits the context.
Thinking in users’ shoes is both easy to say and to be ignored, so I always need to intentionally consider users’ states of mind