Charity M. Jantzen, UXC
Texas Workforce Commission
Project goal -
The primary goal for this project was for me to be able to illustrate how I would resolve the current issues with the website. I was never contacted by the Texas Workforce Commission to redesign their website and I did not get paid. I just wanted to offer a solution that could help millions of Texans who were flustered. The secondary goal admittedly is to have something to show in my portfolio since previous assignments are proprietary or classified.
Who is this for?
In two months over 2.71 million Texans attempted to file for unemployment due to the COVID-19 pandemic, each day the number grows. The unemployed Texans have been unable to file due to simple website issues such as forgotten username or password from a previous unemployment claim, or name changes, email out of date. Those Texans have only one alternative to get their benefits, they have to call the TWC. This redesign is for them, all 2.71 million and counting.
Problem statement -
The Texas Workforce Commission (TWC) website was established to handle a certain volume of traffic. The current volume of traffic is exposing functionality and usability issues.
Cognitive Map
To get my bearings with the information architecture, I needed to produce a cognitive map. Typically this would be conducted with a variety of SME's however I utilized the resources that were available to me. Knowing several people who have been laid off or furloughed, they became my contact users for the project.
Affinity Map
I find it extremely helpful to organize all the current architecture of the site by performing affinity mapping activities. First its always nice to see how the site is laid out and then to synthesize the data, into more logical groups and segments if possible. You can see the before and after in the link.
Wireframing
After sketching out the initial concept, I found it was helpful to wireframe out some of the interactions and behaviors before generating the mockup. In doing so, I was able to flesh out the context of the wireframe’s functionality, opening up for a better design.
Putting it all together
Once I completed the wireframe, I created a mockup that adheres to the commissions branding styles. I updated the mission statement to be a one-liner rather than two lines. Making the search prominent was crucial due to the amount of feedback because, on the previous site, things were hard to find.
Updated the Texas seal out for the Texas logo, which is used on Texas.gov, to facilitate a more consistent branding. Drawing attention to the "Sign In" feature on the home page helps eliminate tedious steps for users and will help easily sign-in every week once an account is established.
Initially, I had Programs as its category on the home page. After some additional discovery, the primary user is a job seeker, the secondary user is the business owner, and the tertiary user would be an agency user (or someone seeking information on the agency), which is why programs are only a menu item.
