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Personalized Resource Finder for People with Disability

Personalized Resource Finder for People with Disability

A quiz that brings tailored resources to users on a silver-platter

Mobile

Form Design

Government

Stakeholder Validation

Accessibility

Landed Professional Project

Roles:

  • Chloe: Product Designer

  • Sanni: Developer

  • Crystal: Design Manager

Business:

State of New Jersey Office of Innovation, Disability Information Hub Team

Timeline:

Nov 2024 - 5 Day Sprint

Overview

Background

This is the intern project of my current work place NJOOI, and I am part of the Disability Information Hub Team. The Disability Information Hub is a website, that offers a central source of information for individuals with disabilities as well as their families and caregivers.

The Disability Information Hub website is like an airport that launches users to their right destination. It is also content-heavy. We also redirect users to our partner programs to find more resources, such as DHS (Department of Human Services).

Project Challenges

  • For my internship stretch project, I have to pick my own project topic.

  • No time and budget for me to do research with real users.

  • Shipping isn't a requirement, but a plus.

Taking the Initiative …

  • I asked to validate my designs with stakeholders and cross-team designers to increase the likelihood of being shipped.

Past Research Insights

Since there is no budget and time for me to do research with real users, so…

I asked my team for past research records. I knew my team had conducted user interviews, and as I read through the interview notes, I noticed 2 patterns.

People in the disability has diverse backgrounds, they don’t just fit in one category

“There needs to be a crossover for services. Someone who has multiple disabilities may need services from several entities, such as an individual with physical disability and mental illness. Information on services could come from several places and services to support me as a caregiver could come from yet another place.”

Research Interviewee 1 – Caregiver

We don’t offer a place to start for people who are new to the disability space

“Sometimes I don't know what I need, I don't understand my child's rights or what they might need. I don't know where to start looking since the Hub offers so many things.”

Research Interviewee 2 – Parent & Caregiver

Our website currently has a feedback collector widget, so I read through the user comments carefully to find common themes and sentiments. And I realized…

Many users still ask for things that are already on the website.

“You [The Hub] should display some mental health providers .”

“My sister need an ASL interpreter, but I don’t see this service on the Hub.”

“I couldn't find the eligibility form for xxx…”

Sample comments found in the feedback widget. Many things users asked about are existing services in the Disability Information Hub.

Problem Space

How might we bring the resources to the users on a silver platter?

Users want to:

  • Quickly & accurately find resources for their needs

  • Get service from multiple entities at once to address user’s multifaceted background

  • Get started in the disability space

  • Get more ways to access information

Business / organization needs:

  • Connect more New Jersey families and individuals to the help they needGet service from multiple entities at once to address user’s multifaceted background

  • Enhance the accessibility and usability of government services

I decided on my internship project topic, and it might solve the above problems.

A mini quiz that lets users to answer some questions and quickly find services or information tailored to their specific needs. This product will be located on the Disability Info Hub’s Content Library page

Process Timeline

How I maximize the week on this design sprint

Competitive Analysis

Key Design Must Have's:

  • Consider user’s multifaceted backgrounds

  • Users are able to navigate back and forth in the quiz

  • Allows users to modify answers

  • Users are able to share result page

Ideation - Quiz Result Page

Ideation - Quiz Result Page

  1. I started by trying out clickable cards, but I realized cards might not be the best option if we were to scale up and embed more resources in the future. It is also hard to distinguish between types of resources.  

  2. I also noticed accordions are a common pattern amongst competitors, but to me - accordions are hiding important information. 

  3. Lists might be the best for accessibility, a lot of our users use screen readers. So I did more deep dives on the list approach. 

Post-stakeholder Feedback Iterations

Post-stakeholder Feedback Iterations

Provide more ways to access one information

Linking the associated Hub page under each type of resources will provide users with more routes to access information.

💡User insight recall:

Linking the associated Hub page under each type of resources will provide users with more routes to access information.

Before

Iterated

The feedback that didn't make it

What the stakeholders suggested: accordions + menu links

What I currently offered: In-page navigation with anchor links + Back to Top button

“Why not use accordions?”

I designed an in-page Navigation component with anchor links, and this is something new to our design system.

💡User research review:

From past interview with users, we found out that users with intellectual and developmental disabilities find accordions confusing to use.

Post - Product Designer Feedback Iterations

Post - Product Designer Feedback Iterations

I reached out to all of the product designers across different team and facilitated a design feedback session

In Page Nav Iterations

“The downward icon looks like a download option at first...”

💡Anchor Menu Best Practice:

Each menu links should still adhere to link design best-practices, like underlining and being clear about the destination.

Before

Iterated

Scannability & Maintenance

Before

“What are some exploration you can do to make this page more scannable?”

🙁 So much text could be disorienting

The quiz result page needs to consider how to display multi-language and different types of resources while being screen reader friendly.

💡Consider website maintenance:

Linking directly to the PDF can be hard to maintain, when possible, link it to the web page that hosts the resources.

Final Prototype

Impact

What I Contributed:

  • Informed more page redesign templates

  • Designed a new In-page Nav component for my organization’s design system

  • Handed-off to engineer & implementation in-progress

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© 2024 Chloe. Made with love and cups of oatmilk latte.