While much attention is paid to the power that artificial intelligence (AI) gives computers, the deployment of AI is proving to be quite human-friendly. Development teams are increasingly utilizing human-centered design practices to build modern software and processes.
Human-centered design focuses on understanding end users’ needs, behaviors, and experiences and then designing processes to respond to those realities. This approach to development is proving especially powerful in government, where systems need to support a wide variety of citizens, many in times of stress such as job loss, death of a family member, recovery from a natural disaster, and more.
Human-Centered Design Basics
The first step in human-centered design is understanding the users. This is achieved through research that can include interviews, surveys, and observations. With this information, the development team can define personas that represent the different users they have discovered. These personas are used to create user stories, detailing how people will interact with the software and the requirements for the solution.
Wireframes and prototypes are built with personas and user stories in mind. They are tested early and often to ensure they are meeting expectations. Production code is similarly tested before and after going live. Updates are made as issues are identified. Continual improvement is the goal of any human-centered design solution.
Building Citizen Relationships
The concept of “customers” for the Department of Justice (DoJ) is not a natural connection. However, without citizens reporting crimes and cooperating with authorities, law enforcement agencies would be largely ineffective. The Access DOJ Initiative was launched to make it easier for Americans to work with the department and its agencies. Their first effort is to review the various portals used to report concerns and issues and identify where the user experience can be improved. The team has also already used insights gained to rework the form used to request a presidential pardon and increase access to bankruptcy meetings.
Low-Tech Improvements
While human-centered design is frequently discussed in terms of software development, the practice can be applied to non-digital parts of a process as well. The State of New Jersey wanted to improve access to paid family leave, as not enough citizens were taking advantage of the benefit. Interviews indicated that the process was simply too complex. Through these discussions, they could identify where people were getting stuck and giving up, and they worked to streamline those areas. These improvements included simplifying language as well as changing process steps.
Similarly, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has simplified the language in taxpayer communications. This has served to reduce the number of incoming calls to the agency, allowing employees to focus on other tasks and more complex issues. The IRS redesigned 31 notices for this tax season, and by next year, it aims to redesign up to 90% of the notices (200 more) sent to individuals.
Human input is critical to realizing efficiency in an increasingly digital world. Adopting human-centered design strategies for technology development, as well as processes in general, serves to improve experience and heighten trust in institutions.
As the founder of GovEvents and GovWhitePapers, Kerry is on a mission to help businesses interact with, evolve, and serve the government. With 25+ years of experience in the information technology and government industries, Kerry drives the overall strategy and oversees operations for both companies. She has also served in executive marketing roles at a number of government IT providers.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.