What is
ACF
The Administration for Children & Families (ACF) is a division of the Department of Health & Human Services. ACF promotes the economic and social well-being of families, children, individuals, and communities.
UC Portal Overview
UC Portal is the ACF-maintained database for Unaccompanied Children that arrive at various borders of the United States. These children are then relocated to various shelter care facilities where the Case Managers update their database digitally logging all the information to track and locate children and their respective relatives/sponsors.
My Role
As UX/UI Analyst, I along with other team members were regularly interviewing Case Managers at various foster homes and shelter care facilities- all over the US. I have to empathize with their challenges and iterate them into enhanced navigation of the UC portal. An important part as to also empathize with their user journey in conjunction with the immigration laws as we try to decrease their paper-related workload.
The Challenge
The challenge in this agile scenario is to not only come up with- navigation enhancement and portal overhauling ideas but also to keep it uniform and homogenous so that it not only qualifies the geographical backdrop of various care facilities but also fits cohesively with the psychographic requirements for Case Managers with diverse backgrounds. This is particularly vital as Case Managers maintain paperwork in a unified manner but how they access our portal, and how they expect it to work is quite unique. We can't add up to their workflow, instead, chart a way to complement and make the digital transformation smooth yet progressive.
Unification Flow
An important element that we have to consider is that our portal is used at various junctions. From Case Managers to the ACF team and from there the sponsors, relatives, parents or other guardians use the UC portal to keep track of the kids until they reach the designated person, foster care, or shelter facility. Therefore, we have to empathize with the accessibility requirements of diverse users with the option to keep it as simple and intuitive as possible.
Border Journey
Not only is the UC portal used by various parties throughout the unification process but throughout the border journey by the related destinations too. Many times, the kids are runaway and they have a tendency to run away again- therefore the UC portal is used to keep track of such kids at various points, as they are commuted from one point to another until they reach their final destination.
We have to keep the portal responsive and updated so that in case of any such discrepancy- it is easy to track down the kids with the help of the local authorities.
Design System
When I joined Applied Intellect- the coders were doing all the design. Therefore, there was no design guideline. This made the task particularly cumbersome for the ACF team as well as the Case Managers- who couldn't differentiate one section from another. They could also not intuitively predict what is going to come next while filling out the forms online.
There were no components library, no fixed typeface or hierarchy in color scheme or layout. It looked like a dated online forum. When I inquired about the design system- the coders said they randomly picked icons online. So I made the decision to not only update the existing random design elements but also created a library of components and color palettes to be followed thereon. Here's an example of before and after:
Vision Board:
DIY Documents update
DIY Documents update
(clickable prototype)
Comparative Usability Study
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Outcome
Every time we interview the Case Managers in a moderated remote Microsoft team call- we try to empathize as to how we can lessen their workload by digitizing their process and how we can enhance their experience of the UC. Right now the portal is like adding a layer to their work. We are making the experience smoother to reduce this procedure so that they can spend more time in field interacting with the children and their sponsors. Maintaining paper and digital formats is an improved experience without a learning curve.