Making civic participation in local government easier.
Problem
State board members have the opportunity to influence policy decisions that affect them and their communities, so serving on a board is an easy way for ordinary Utah residents to be heard. But poor website design and a confusing application process prevent many from applying to open board positions. Staff who manage boards also get stuck during the approval process, wasting time and leaving positions unfilled for months.
Approach
My team's goal was to make the process of becoming a board member easier on both applicants and agency staff to reduce bureaucratic inefficiency and enable a more representative public to serve in Utah's government. Through a cycle of research and iterative human-centered design, I led the redesign of the Boards and Commissions website and application process.
Impact
The fully redesigned website and application process drove a 98% increase in applicant satisfaction with the overall experience and is now used by 35 state agencies and hundreds of Utah residents. The Boards and Commissions Director also observed a decrease in frequency of agency staff seeking support with the process and higher quality data from improved management capabilities.
Role
UX/UI designer
Timeline
10 weeks (Summer 2022)
Team
Product manager ● UX researcher ● Salesforce developer
Status
Launched
A redesign used by 35 state agencies and hundreds of applicants.
+
98% ↑ in applicant satisfaction.
Process
01/ Sizing up the current state
Application process
I dove in by attempting to navigate the complicated process of becoming a board member for myself. This rather harrowing experience allowed me to map the application process (below) across multiple stakeholders so my team could get on the same page about where things might be going wrong.
Website
I also took a look at the current Boards and Commissions website. Data from Hotjar and Google Analytics immediately revealed some glaring usability issues:
⚠️️ Users move haphazardly over the homepage with no particular focus.
⚠️️ Users scroll endlessly without reading important information embedded in long paragraphs.
⚠️️ Users leave a page quickly when they can’t find the information they need.
02/ Leading with research
To dig deeper into the challenges our users faced, we conducted 20+ interviews with applicants and agency staff.
Research goals
🎯 Identify barriers that prevent potential applicants from applying to boards and commissions positions.
🎯 Discover challenges agency staff face in managing their boards and commissions.
Key findings - applicants
🔎 Applicants often don’t know how Boards work.
👴🏽
“I think they don’t get a lot of applications because people don’t know what’s going on.”
-Applicant
🔎 Applicants struggle to find relevant listings.
🤦🏽♀️
"This requires you to search every single listing, and that hurts my soul."
-Applicant
🔎 Applicants get tangled up in a confusing process.
🙋🏼
“I know me and some of my peers needed a guide to get where we needed to go.”
-Applicant
Key findings - agency staff
🔎 Staff get frustrated they can’t change incorrect data.
🤦🏻♂️
“One of the biggest hurdles for our department will be getting good data again.”
-Department of Financial Institutions
🔎 Staff struggle to find new applications to approve.
🤷🏾♀️
"We couldn't meet for two months because I didn't have any board members."
-Community Impact Board
🔎 Staff need help completing the approval process.
👩🏼🦳
"I usually have to message someone in Boards and Commissions for help."
-Animal Industry Division
03/ Identifying opportunities
Drawing on our research, I noted pain points (red sticky notes) and the frequency (dots) with which both potential applicants and agency staff experienced them. Design opportunities are noted in green.
Prioritization
Since we had limited time (~7 weeks) for the redesign, I worked with our product manager to create a focused list of goals and prioritized features based on the severity and frequency of issues that, if fixed, would result in the greatest improvement with the least time and effort. These included:
A redesigned homepage
Expanded search capabilities for applicants
Streamlining the approval process for agency staff.
Searching for inspiration
I did some research into other states' boards and commissions websites and took notes on what seemed to be working well. For example, Arizona communicated their process well and Minnesota had advanced search features for applicants trying to find relevant boards.
Design goals - applicants
🎯 Introduce Boards and Commissions in a friendly way.
Features
Redesign the homepage and create plain language content throughout the website.
🎯 Make the positions search more intuitive and customizable.
Features
Allow applicants to search by interest area, board and/or specific position via filters.
🎯 Empower applicants to finish the application.
Features
Explain expectations up front and provide guidance with helper text.
Design goals - agency staff
🎯 Give staff more control over their board data.
Features
Modify editing permissions to grant agency staff the appropriate controls.
🎯 Make urgent and priority tasks more visible to staff.
Features
Redesign layout of approval section to emphasize pending applications.
🎯 Empower staff to complete the approval process.
Features
Design a centralized hub that provides necessary guidance and information.
Prototyping
I iterated through ideas to incorporate the prioritized features into the website and application interface by sketching layouts, creating wireframes and constructing a low-fidelity prototype in Figma. In these homepage sketches and wireframes, I was testing out ways to introduce boards and commissions to audiences with different levels of familiarity.
04/ Gathering feedback
By conducting 10+ surveys and moderated usability tests with the low-fidelity prototype, we quickly gathered feedback on the preliminary redesign.
Our user researcher found that applicant satisfaction increased by 98% from the preliminary redesign alone. Based on qualitative feedback, I updated the interface and adjusted aspects of the website and process users were still confused about, like the FAQ section.
Applicants
Before redesign
After redesign
Agency staff
Before redesign
After redesign
“This would allow a lot more people to become civically engaged, and who doesn’t need more of that right now?”
- Applicant
💁🏻♀️
Designs
Overall
Updating a familiar look
I refreshed some of the basic website assets, taking cues from the Utah state design system. Previously, there was no accent color, so I added one to be able to draw visual emphasis to buttons, links, calls to action, etc.
For applicants
A welcoming homepage
I decided on the homepage design that most participants preferred due to its simplicity and clear calls to action.
A customizable position search
Inspired by other boards and commissions websites, I allowed users to filter by interest area when searching for an open position, so that they could more easily find boards and positions that were relevant to them.
A snag-free application process
The previous application flow was loaded with unfamiliar language and confusing micro-interactions, which I cleaned up in the redesign. I also included a progress indicator so applicants could know what to expect during the process.
A focus on equity
During our interviews with agency staff, we heard that many applicants they worked with did not have formal resumes, especially those who worked in agriculture or trade jobs. This effectively prevented them from applying to a position, since a resume was a required part of the application. To ensure that everyone could apply without the additional burden of creating a resume, I designed an option that would allow an applicant to type in basic information about their work experience from which a resume would be created and submitted for them.
For agency staff
A centralized portal
Agency staff often had trouble finding where to approve applications or manage board data, so I designed a centralized portal from which they can easily initiate these top tasks.
A streamlined approval process
One of the biggest problems agency staff faced was missing new applications to approve, so I designed a dashboard that put new applications front and center, along with options to sort a larger list of applications.
An expanded set of permissions
Agency staff had trouble managing their boards because they couldn't alter a lot of their data due to permissions in the Salesforce system, so I consulted with our developer to change those, along with a interface that allows agency staff to edit current and historical data within the page of each board and position.
Moving forward
Sharing our work
Our team presented the redesigns to Boards and Commissions staff, leadership figures in the Utah government, and our fellowship program. Our redesigns were met with a great deal of enthusiasm!
Implementation
Because our team had to leave before the redesign was implemented, we prepared detailed documentation including high fidelity mockups and a prioritized list of requirements so that our developer could continue working on it in our absence. They were able to launch the MVP in January of 2023.
Reflections
Collaboration is key in the face of constraints.
Clear communication, organization, and flexibility are essential when working with a small distributed team. We had to be creative with what we were working with in terms of technical considerations, timelines, tools and other constraints that come with the territory of government.
Addressing stakeholder needs is a delicate balancing act.
Not every feature that stakeholders wanted was feasible, so we had to prioritize those that would result in the greatest improvement for our wide variety of users while taking care to demonstrate that we were still listening to their needs.
Visualizing possibilities is a powerful unifier.
As the only designer on the team, I realized how much more likely people are willing to get on board with a project after showing - not just telling - what is possible.