The DWP needed to improve the experience of claimants navigating complex systems involving multiple benefits. Key pain points included understanding notifications, managing communications, and reducing call volumes. My role was to gather and synthesise user insights to shape a claimant-centric vision for service improvements.
I worked closely with a multidisciplinary team to uncover and visualise claimants’ experiences and identify actionable next steps:
1. User Research:
Conducted 25+ interviews with multi-benefit claimants to explore their behaviours, challenges, and emotions.
Focused on uncovering their feedback on notifications, communication channels, and service touchpoints.
2. Synthesis and Visualisation:
Translated research insights into storyboards, journey maps, and claimant mental models, offering a tangible view of user needs.
Created service maps to illustrate end-to-end claimant journeys, highlighting pain points and opportunities for improvement.
3. Actionable Recommendations:
Proposed experiments for the Alpha phase to test solutions aimed at simplifying communications and improving service accessibility.
The project delivered actionable insights and visual representations that informed the next steps for service improvements, setting the stage for the Alpha phase.
In-depth understanding of claimant behaviours, needs, and pain points.
Tangible outputs, including storyboards, journey maps, and service maps, to guide future decision-making.
A roadmap of experiments to test potential improvements in the claimant experience.
This project reinforced the value of listening to users and leveraging visual storytelling to inspire change. It demonstrated the importance of synthesising qualitative data into actionable insights for improving public sector services.
