New Mexico Department of Workforce Solutions
Re-Design
Mission Statement
The New Mexico Department of Workforce Solution strives to be a leader in improving employment and poverty rates through workforce development, enhanced services for employers, and ensuring fair labor practices and workforce protections for New Mexicans.
Data Points:
3.6%
Unemployment Rate
34K
Total Unemployment Rate
34K
Total Insurance Claims
Only 29.4% of all unemployed New Mexicans have filed claims to receive unemployment insurance benefits
By redesigning the website, it would better help New Mexicans looking for temporary assistance gain the necessary support needed to find employment.
Metrics
Increase the ratio of unemployment insurance claims to unemployment by 10%
Lower state unemployment by 9%
By increasing the overall percentage of cliams, it would increase the likelyhood that New Mexicans looking for temporary assistance would have access to information and resources to return to the workforce.
Better connecting unemployed New Mexicans to available resources and jobs would put New Mexico in the top 10 states with the lowest unemployment rates.
User Problem Statement
I am a 37-year-old former saled agent living in NewMexico that has recently lost my job due to the COVID-9 pandemic. While looking to learn a new trade skill, I need to file for unemployment, however, the information is confusing and convoluted. I am unable to find information if I qualify and how to start the application proccess.
User Persona
Mind Mapping
Converge
Phase
We selected choices based on the $100 bill test. Each section was given a 90-second timer, and funds were added to ideas that could be implemented and were deemed most feasable and desirable by team members. To construct our initial wireframe, we implemented the top ideas:
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Glossary of terms
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Manage a claim
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Minimalistic
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Images with alt text
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Benefits Calculator
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Lofi-Wireframes:
Home Page
File a Claim Log in Page
File a Claim Success
Job Board
File a Claim
File a Claim Application
Manage a Claim
Glossary
Frequently Asked Questions
User Testing
Usability Testing Technique
Remote/ Live Testing
What do we want the testers to complete?
We want our testers to be able to intuitively navigate and understand the homepage to start and complete a claim for unemployment insurance.
Why?
This technique is best suited for this case because it can be tested anywhere at anytime.
Metrics
Did the user seem stressed or frustrated? How long it takes the user to complete a claim? How many clicks did it take to complete the task?
ARCHITECTURE &
CONTENT ANALYSIS
While navigating the unemployment site, our team decided that the current framework needed a facelift and many functionality revisions. The site posed many cluttured interfaces, confusing navigation, and the occasional 404 error screens, which could lead users to frustrastions and a decrease in website traffic.
ARCHITECTURE &
CONTENT ANALYSIS
With this in mind, our team throughly reviewed the exsisting site and reevaluated the website's content and design. We identified strenghts and weaknesses of the current site, as well as opportunities for improvement. Using this knowledge, we created a sitemap based on the exisisting site and revised it into a new sitemap. This new sitemap will be orginized into a hierachical structure that guides users through the website to help them find important informationt they need quickly and easily. Following this redesign, it will be updated to reflect the new architecture to crate a more visually appealing and engaging user experience.
ARCHITECTURE &CONTENT ANALYSIS
The current navigation makes it difficult for qualified individuals who meet state eligibility requirements to gain temporary financial assistance. There is too much governmental jargon and unclear logic that users must currently navigate to gain access to start a claim or log in. And while ther is helpful information, it is buried in multiple links or pdfs. For our updated navigation, we would like to:
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Keep Unemployment information
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Add Start A Claim
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Add Manage A Claim
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Keep a separate login for employers
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Keep Training Providers
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Reorganize Unemployment Information to keep the FAQs high in the hierarchy
WEBSITE NAVIGATION ANALYSIS
In our new site map, we decided to focus on giving the user simple options to choose from based on thier needs to easily access how to start and manage claims or find information about unemployment information and who may qualify.
Basic unemployment information can now be found in the primary navigation, and more detailed inforamtion is now routed through the individual dashboard based on category and needs.
Our overall goal was to give various user personas clear entry points to accomplish given tasks directly from the primary menu.
Homepage with Primary Navigation
We also carried the hierachical structure for our primary navigation menu on the home page using different aspects such as grouping, size, and color.
Grouping will allow us to easily distinguish between different types of content. We used size to make certain elementws stand out mroe than others, allowing us to emphasize particular content. And finally, we will color to further draw attention to the most important pieces of information.
By applying these changes, we can effectively communicate the hierarchy of our primary navigation links. This will improve the overall user experieence for visitors to our website, as it will be easier to find the information they are looking for.
Homepage with Secondary Navigation
Design Theory
Homepage
Figure Ground- In our homepage like the original homepage we have decided to have an image that would a represitnation of the state of New Mexico. This is what is considered the figure. It is meant to draw appeal to the website and give the image of future posibilities.
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Proximity- In our home page we have two main examples of proximity. In the first example would be the menu where ther is different options grouped together to represend what can be quickly searched. This is pretty standard with all websites. Next, we have the file a claim, manage a claim, and training providers button. They are grouped in a horizontal line to show similar functions and to indicate a meaningful group.
Individual Dashboard
Contunuation- Our brains tend to see objects as continous or smooth rather than disjointed or discontinuous. The two objects that compose the payment calculator graph are seen as one continuous circle which is half-fileld rather than two half-circles joined together.
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Common Fate- We tend to perceive elements moving in the same directions as being related mroe than elements that are stationary or moving in different directions. Each item listed under the UI Benefit Payment is indicated by a downward arrow, suggesting that they will all perform the same actions when clicked, and therefore they should be viewed as related.
Job Board
Similarity- Elements that are similar are perceived to be more related than elements that are dissimilar. It helpts organize objects within a group and can be affected by the attributes of color, size, shape, and orientation. Many of the design elements wihtin the page are grouped accordingly based on the similarities in its placement, font, and orientation.
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Symmetry- is a balanced arrangement of elements on either side of an axis. It can help guide the user to a certain mood, feeling, or draw their eyes to a certain aspect. Symmetry can benefit a project by clarifying the structure of a design while giving the project a clear objective. With this, there are aspects, mainly font and distribution of text, that are placed in key areas to help the webpage create symmetry.
Pattern Library
Form Elements
Buttons
Graph Elements
Images
Icons
Section Dividers
Input Elements
Navigation Menu
Text Element
Section Template
Grid Layout
12 Column Grid
Mid-Fidelity Wireframes:
Home Page
File a Claim Log in Page
File a Claim Application
File a Claim Confirmation
Frequently Asked Questions
Employer Dashboard
Labor Market
Training Log In Page
File a Claim
File a Claim Applicatinon Pt. II
File a Claim Success
Glossary
Job Board
Individual Dashboard
A/B Testing
Based on our user problem statemnt, one of our metrics was to raise the ratio of unemployment insurance claims to unemployment. Increasing the overall percentage of claims would increase the likelihood that New Mexicans looking for temporary assistance would have access to information and resources to return to the workforce. Our team decided to focus on the if-then statement below.
If-then Statement
If we increase the button size on our file a claim page, then first-time applicants will be able to access the unemployment application faster.
Hypothesis
We believe that enlarging the buttons on the file a claim page for first-time applicants will allow them to start an application faster. We will know we are successful if we decrease the time it takes to start an unemployment insurance claim.
A/B Testing Results
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4/5 users tested preferred the larger buttons on the File a Claim page.
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Therefore our testing demonstrated that increasing the button size would lead to a higher click rate, which results in more traffic to the website's File a Claim page.
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Our hypothesis was correct. We will implement the larger button size in future iterations.
A/B Testing Recommendation
Our recommendation, based on the results, is to implement a larger button size in future iterations. This will improve the user experience by making it easier to know where to click and navigate the interface faster.
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While testing this change, both variations were visually easy to comprehend. However, according to most users, the larger buttons proved to be more visually appealing and more accessible than the smaller buttons.
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We believe it will also reduce the number of clicks needed to complete a task and improve efficiency.
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This change will have a significant impact on specific age groups. With the test ages ranging from 18-60, the larger buttons were far more visible and easier to reach for people over the age of 40.
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This revised design also considers the needs of people with disabilities such as limited dexerity or vision impairment. The larger buttons make it easier for people with reduced mobility to use the product.
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For people with colorblindness, the high-fidelity design should take into account both a shape and a color.
Style Guide
The New Mexico Department of Workforce Solutions' tone is formal yet empathetic. We use language that is easy for people to understand. We want to provide clear, concise, and accurate information. In understanding who utilizes our services, we want to make our users feel they are in trusted hands, not judged. We want people to feel supported, respected and heard. It is imperative to us that our users know we are here for them, and we will do our best to help them navigate the resources available. We never assume that our users are familiar with the terms used to access unemployment benefits. Our tone also considers cultural differences.