Arizona DES

Overview

The Arizona Department of Economic Security hired Cast & Hue to help them tackle the challenge of understanding how to reduce complexity, wait times and repeat visits/calls when clients are applying for benefits.

Duration
1 year
Work
Customer interviews
Ethnography
Design Sprints
Prototyping
Testing

01 Research

Along with other researchers, I visited various DES locations to observe how clients navigate the application process and how the staff serves them throughout that process. We also interviewed DES clients and staff, and performed moderated usability tests with 15 participants.

Because the application process is complex and has so many potential paths from start to finish, we began our research by simply observing and interviewing the clients to see what common patterns we could find. Speaking with clients who had recently completed their application was the most important factor in our recruiting process.

As we learned about the client's journey, we began to map out the key phases and added the related steps within each phase.

02 Synthesis

Once we completed our research phase, we began to synthesize the interview data by grouping together common insights we found throughout the clients' journeys. We did this through a process called affinity mapping, and used direct quotes and emotions shared from the clients and staff we interviewed to support our research insights.

Through affinity mapping, we grouped similar insights together in order to identify common patterns within the client experience

03 Insights

Based on the patterns we were seeing from our research insights, these were the most common challenges to solve for in the client experience:

Knowing what steps and information needed to apply for benefits was unclear
Submitting application documents was challenging and time-consuming
DES staff was not well-equipped for helping clients feel valued and understood
Understanding policy changes was challenging for both DES clients and staff

We used these insights to guide what types of solutions we would need to think about during our design sprints in the next phase.

04 Ideation

Once we defined the key challenges within the client journey, we started a design sprint with DES clients and staff to begin coming up with ideas on how we could best impact those areas in the future.

Along with 4 other researchers on my team, I facilitated workshops to co-create solutions, test and validate them, and determine what solutions should be prioritized in our 2 year roadmap.