About the project
At the beginning of the project, we didn’t have a clear mission on the specific goals for our design project since many organizations were involved in this project. Each organization required specific information for an application to adjudicate based on benefits that each applicant applied for. Today, the systems are fragmented and individual approaches to standard procedures creates extra work for everyone and can cause unforced errors and overall confusion.
We traveled across the country to interview over 100+ users and conducted 8 SMEs workshop sessions to understand deeply about what information each organization prioritized and their current system state, use cases, data types, pain points, and discovered many opportunities for the project. We discovered their current process, determined high level design principles, and reorganized how their data should be shared across organizations. We used these artifacts to help us make an informed deign solutions and further conduct usability testings with the users.
Project Goals
I was an Interaction Designer at Fjord supporting a vision project for Department of Homeland Security for over 20,000 immigration officers. The goal of the CIS Modernization project was to create a single authoritative source of trusted biographical and biometric information. The modernized system will provide real-time, two-way visibility into an individual’s comprehensive immigration history and status.
Team
1 Interaction Designer, 1 Design Lead, 1 Visual Designer, 1 Business Process Designer
Duration
5 Months
The below content is a glimpse of my work at Fjord that I worked on previously. Some content is under NDA, please get in touch with me to learn more.
After interviewing our SMEs, I collaborated with Visual Designer to create artifacts to help users understand the current users and existing systems to further determine the key features, KPI, and how we gather data from existing systems.
Gathering Insights
During initial research, our goals were to understand the challenges users were facing and to find the workarounds that they go through to complete their daily tasks. Our research led us to figuring out that both human and system workflows had blockers that stopped users from delivering quality information. Officers without regular training and adequate system permissions found it difficult to perform at their jobs accurately and efficiently. Their personal adaptations to standard operating procedures created extra work for everyone causing accidental errors and overall confusion.
My main role during this process was to provide resources that helped both business designers and clients. These resources should help them determine the key features, key performance indicators, and the different data types that belong to their different systems. After collecting feedback from users to create measurable tools for business designers, I created experience diagrams and data matrices for each group of users describing what data points needed to be included on each user interface.
Example of personas that we created after we learned about our primary users and their roles
Below is some of the insights we learned from our users during initial research:
“We now have to create workarounds for things that used to take two steps” — ISA Analysts
“Modernization is not as necessary as integration.” — Asylum Officer
Guiding Principles
Authoritative and person centric
Authoritative source for individuals’ consolidated biographical and biometric information based on a system of verification
Trusted, Analytics-Driven data
Trusted and reliable, encompassing a holistic view of an individual’s data. System will use analytics to verify and validate duplicative data, and key insights
Integrated and scalable
Designed to be scalable and integrated with partner authoritative sources across the ecosystem, while staying true to the defined functionality and intent
Transparent, real-time information
Two-way visibility between applicable services to provide transparent, real-time information
Intuitive and accessible
Simple and intuitive role-based data repository for users, requiring minimal training and change management
Conducted workshops and gather insights from user interviews to determine design goals & main features of the project.
The system redesign process
We synthesized over 100+ interviews and translated user requirements into design goals for each design sprint. Our team collaborated over 15 design sprints along with usability tests every week. Our goal during each design sprint was focus on each key feature and we then refactored our user interface designs from our weekly usability tests.
My main role was to deliver both user interface designs and prototypes for users to interact with and gain feedback from them. I was the main advocate for various design solutions that are now the MVP of the project.
Here are the examples of my designs explorations throughout our design sprints as we gained feedback from the users
Identity View
Gaining feedback from our users during usability testing was one of the most integral parts of our design process. The feedback we got from usability testing led us to consider various aspects of design such as functionality improvement, interface hierarchy, and feature development. By collaborating with our visual designer during each sprint, we were able to enhance the visual design, surface specific data points on the screen, as well as create a consistent experience throughout the web application.
My main role during usability testing was to define the user testing questions and create measurable surveys. I analyzed the data collected from the surveys and converted them into presentable formats with insights that we then presented to our clients. I also led several usability testing sessions and user interviews to gain feedback on specific portions of the UI.
Design examples we used to test with the users and delivered the final designs
Identity Resolution
Here is the example of how I navigated my design process throughout the design sprint. Since this feature is complex, we took a lot of effort into understanding the challenge and include information upfront for users to choose an appropriate option to complete a task. However, users were overwhelmed with options that were given to them and often lost track of what they can do next. I took the feedback into an account and reiterated on interactions for this feature. For final design, I focused on interactions that were optimized for users’ behaviors. I introduced trigger state as well as disabled state to limit options for users according to their selection (Progressive Disclosure).
Examples of our design hand offs to the engineering team that includes Information Architecture, User Flows, Personas, and User Interfaces/Navigations Descriptions
Handing off designs
In order to create effective deliverables for the engineering team, we created documentation describing the information architecture, user flows, personas, and user interfaces so that they can onboard faster.
My main role was to create the information architecture for the engineering team so that they could get an understanding of the overview structure of each screen. I also corporate with team members to create content for other documentation, user stories, and personas.
Learnings
I am extremely grateful to be a part of this team at Fjord to help create a tool that impacts large groups of people at scale including immigration officers and people applying for immigration benefits. I have learned so much from each individual from my team and am thankful that I had an amazing opportunity to create meaningful products together.
Navigate ambiguity — Collaborated with my design lead and used design methodologies to uncover insights and opportunities
End to end design process — I was able to how to learn end to end design process from conducting design workshops to handing off design documentation while collaboration with my cross functional partners as well as my stakeholders.
Collaborate with my cross functional partners — Worked with large group of stakeholders and cross functional partners to deliver design solutions