Timeline
Timeline
12 weeks (Jan to Apr 2025)
12 weeks (Jan to Apr 2025)
12 weeks (Jan to Apr 2025)
Team Members
Team Members
3 Fellow UX Consultants from Pratt Institute
3 Fellow UX Consultants from Pratt Institute
3 Fellow UX Consultants from Pratt Institute
My Role
My Role
Research & Strategy Lead, Account Management
Research & Strategy Lead, Account Management
Research & Strategy Lead, Account Management
The Challenge:
DCWP is a department of the NYC government that oversees over 45,000 businesses, issuing licenses across 40+ industries. Its online portal handles all licensing matters and needed to:
Address hardship cases (users with low digital literacy) and support first-time users (unfamiliar with the application process)
Reduce cognitive load for users as they navigate an 11-step online application and following procedures
Balance multiple stakeholder needs from the Marketing, IT, and Licensing team.
We delivered:
2 stakeholder presentations to showcase research findings and proposed redesign.
High-fidelity prototype (50+ screens) with improved visual and information hierarchy, as well as specialized form design.
Results:
Handed off to DCWP to IT team and in active implementation.
Project manager predicted 30% reduction in completion time and 67% drop in support requests.
The Challenge:
DCWP is a department of the NYC government that oversees over 45,000 businesses, issuing licenses across 40+ industries. Its online portal handles all licensing matters and needed to:
Address hardship cases (users with low digital literacy) and support first-time users (unfamiliar with the application process)
Reduce cognitive load for users as they navigate an 11-step online application and following procedures
Balance multiple stakeholder needs from the Marketing, IT, and Licensing team.
We delivered:
2 stakeholder presentations to showcase research findings and proposed redesign.
High-fidelity prototype (50+ screens) with improved visual and information hierarchy, as well as specialized form design.
Results:
Handed off to DCWP to IT team and in active implementation.
Project manager predicted 30% reduction in completion time and 67% drop in support requests.
Design Questions
How might we improve the online license application experience to be more welcoming, user-friendly, and more accessible?
How might we maximize opportunities to support first-time users with our redesigned portal?
Our Process
Research
What does the end-to-end user experience look like when applying for or renewing a Home Improvement Contractor License?
Early on in our project, we realized that the user journey actually starts before the portal. Whether online or in person, many steps, procedures, and webpages outside of the online portal screens that need to be taken into consideration.
We arranged 2 onsite visits, 3 user interviews, and 9 stakeholder interviews to obtain first hand information and learn about the total experience of applying and renewing home improvement licenses from start to finish.
Research
What does the end-to-end user experience look like when applying for or renewing a Home Improvement Contractor License?
Early on in our project, we realized that the user journey actually starts before the portal. Whether online or in person, many steps, procedures, and webpages outside of the online portal screens that need to be taken into consideration.
We arranged 2 onsite visits, 3 user interviews, and 9 stakeholder interviews to obtain first hand information and learn about the total experience of applying and renewing home improvement licenses from start to finish.
Instead of regular user journeys, we decided to use Service Blueprints to discern the parallels of user actions and business processes.
Instead of regular user journeys, we decided to use Service Blueprints to discern the parallels of user actions and business processes.
This revealed to us:
Interactions with the portal can be a SMALL portion of the entire user journey.
License holders and applicants spend a significant amount of time preparing for their application, PRIOR TO going onto the portal.
These insights led us to conduct user testing to understand how people discover license application requirements, how they navigate to the portal, and their impressions of the overall experience.
Through our affinity diagram, we confirmed our speculation: Users are confused and overwhelmed when preparing for application, before coming onto the portal. Many expressed their wish for step-by-step guidance.
This revealed to us:
Interactions with the portal can be a SMALL portion of the entire user journey.
License holders and applicants spend a significant amount of time preparing for their application, PRIOR TO going onto the portal.
These insights led us to conduct user testing to understand how people discover license application requirements, how they navigate to the portal, and their impressions of the overall experience.
Through our affinity diagram, we confirmed our speculation: Users are confused and overwhelmed when preparing for application, before coming onto the portal. Many expressed their wish for step-by-step guidance.
2. Where (else) do users encounter challenges in the Home Improvement License application and renewal process?
To identify where users face the most challenges within the portal, we synthesized insights obtained from user and staff interviews, as well as our internal heuristic evaluations. In total, we summarized 55 problems into a consolidated problem sheet.
2. Where (else) do users encounter challenges in the Home Improvement License application and renewal process?
To identify where users face the most challenges within the portal, we synthesized insights obtained from user and staff interviews, as well as our internal heuristic evaluations. In total, we summarized 55 problems into a consolidated problem sheet.
These insights indicated a core problem…
With the insights above, our redesign strategy aims to streamline the application and renewal processes and provide direct, instant support for users.
Redesign Highlights
Checklist Page
Clearer section division based on application timeline and actions required of the license applicants, with a sticky side navigation to allow for quick scan and local navigation based on user need.
Accordion under each section to reduce visual clutter and provide direct access to specific information.
Redesign Highlights
Checklist Page
Clearer section division based on application timeline and actions required of the license applicants, with a sticky side navigation to allow for quick scan and local navigation based on user need.
Accordion under each section to reduce visual clutter and provide direct access to specific information.
Portal Dashboard
Surfacing functions and services that are most relevant to users.
Portal Dashboard
Surfacing functions and services that are most relevant to users.
Application form
Reducing # of Steps (11→ 8) and using progressive disclosure to avoid cognitive overload.
In-page navigation changed from vertical stepper to horizontal bar, indicating progress in a more intuitive way.
Options to return to previous page and save.
Application form
Reducing # of Steps (11→ 8) and using progressive disclosure to avoid cognitive overload.
In-page navigation changed from vertical stepper to horizontal bar, indicating progress in a more intuitive way.
Options to return to previous page and save.
Contextual support
Important section with explanations or critical guidance that help users understand important details of the process.
Contextual alerts showing brief, inline messages at key points of user journey to provide immediate and relevant support.
Contextual support
Important section with explanations or critical guidance that help users understand important details of the process.
Contextual alerts showing brief, inline messages at key points of user journey to provide immediate and relevant support.
What I learned
🙂 Trust the process and take the time to interpret research findings
Research took up most of our time and effort. It initially felt concerning as we kept expanding the scope of our research, conducting myriad testing methods, and delaying actual redesign. However, investing the time to thoroughly analyze and synthesize these findings proved extremely valuable to our process.
💡 Public sector digital services require different considerations, yet accessibility remains crucial
This is my first time working on a public-facing digital product at this scale. The thought that our redesign will serve so many businesses in NYC was thrilling and challenging. From the user-centric design perspective, it was important to recognize that there are no alternatives to the DCWP portal, suggesting the high impact of any potential usability issues.
What I learned
🙂 Trust the process and take the time to interpret research findings
Research took up most of our time and effort. It initially felt concerning as we kept expanding the scope of our research, conducting myriad testing methods, and delaying actual redesign. However, investing the time to thoroughly analyze and synthesize these findings proved extremely valuable to our process.
💡 Public sector digital services require different considerations, yet accessibility remains crucial
This is my first time working on a public-facing digital product at this scale. The thought that our redesign will serve so many businesses in NYC was thrilling and challenging. From the user-centric design perspective, it was important to recognize that there are no alternatives to the DCWP portal, suggesting the high impact of any potential usability issues.
What I learned
🙂 Trust the process and take the time to interpret research findings
Research took up most of our time and effort. It initially felt concerning as we kept expanding the scope of our research, conducting myriad testing methods, and delaying actual redesign. However, investing the time to thoroughly analyze and synthesize these findings proved extremely valuable to our process.
💡 Public sector digital services require different considerations, yet accessibility remains crucial
This is my first time working on a public-facing digital product at this scale. The thought that our redesign will serve so many businesses in NYC was thrilling and challenging. From the user-centric design perspective, it was important to recognize that there are no alternatives to the DCWP portal, suggesting the high impact of any potential usability issues.
A heartfelt thank you to everyone involved in this project -- my teammates, Prof. Rachel Ginsberg who moderated our project throughout the semester, and of course the DCWP team.
Your collaboration and encouragement made this extensive, fast-paced project fulfilling and impactful.
A heartfelt thank you to everyone involved in this project -- my teammates, Prof. Rachel Ginsberg who moderated our project throughout the semester, and of course the DCWP team.
Your collaboration and encouragement made this extensive, fast-paced project fulfilling and impactful.