DWP

Challenge

Recipients of the PIP benefit payment were unable to apply again online if they had submitted their previous application online. This was a key pain point for the service, with telephone agents receiving many calls a day from customers asking to apply online. The only journey available was to complete a new application by post.

Solution

To unlock the ability for telephone agents to offer the online option to customers in a way that worked with their current processes. And to support the technical implementation of customer record improvement through mapping back-end to front-end terms.

What I did

• Worked in a cross-discipline team to understand the AS-IS journey and pain points
• Ran an impact assessment on the journey to identify which points would be most affected and require design
• Used interview style user research sessions to understand user (agent) perception of what would increase their confidence to offer an online service to these type of customers
• Collaborated with a UI designer to create multiple low fidelity designs that could meet the user need
• Applied content design techniques to create multiple options to compliment the visual design
• Ran a technical feasibility workshop to run through options with development, engineering, testing, product and delivery colleagues
• Decided on 2 options to take forward for usability testing
• Rapidly iterated design through user testing, to improve the journey and comprehension of content
• Worked with developers to finalise the design to be built and implemented into the service

The impact

• Unlocked the ability for the first group of customers to apply again for PIP online
• Enabled up to 700,000 customers the option to serve themselves digitally
• Created the design blueprint so that more user groups (customer types) will have the ability to also apply again online in the future
• This design solution aligned to the digital mission of the service - which improves customer satisfaction and service delivery