Simplifying the User Experience for Hackney Council Residents
About the project
Hackney London Borough Council is the local government authority for the London Borough of Hackney, London, England, one of 32 London borough councils. The council is unusual in the United Kingdom local government system in that its executive function is controlled by a directly elected mayor of Hackney, currently Philip Glanville of the Labour Party.
Our team was tasked to deliver better digital services for the Hackney Council website, improve customer-facing services for council tax related tasks, business needs and car related services and to meet the Web Content Accessibility Standards which aims to make the web more accessible for users with disabilities. We kicked off this project in person but we were interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. We had to quickly readjust to conducting the rest of the project from our homes.
The steps to success
As we worked on a short timeframe, we had to make sure we stay organised and focused. So for this project we relied on Agile sprints the design thinking methodology to guide us and tackle the design process in 5 phases: Empathise, Define, Ideate, Prototype and Test.
Empathise
We are designing for a wide range of users so the very first thing that we did was to understand our user demographics and the most common touch points with the council.
Through exploratory research we found that out of the 33 different boroughs within London, Hackney ranks at the 6th most diverse borough with 64% of the population identifying as non-English / Welsh / Scottish / Northern Irish; which is 8% more than the London average of 56%.
72% are of working age between 16-54 showing that Hackney has a relatively young demographic.
With 14% of the Hackney’s population reporting to be disabled or experiencing long-term limiting illnesses, there is a strong need for us as designers to prioritise accessibility.
User interviews and survey results
By conducting this the survey and user interviews, we managed to verify some of our initial assumptions:
Council tax is the main touchpoint between the users and the council
Smartphone is the most preferred device to access the internet
But we also found something that was not quite as expected.
21 out of 26 of our participants have made complaints about the council website, some leading to confusion on whether their tasks has been completed.
During our interviews, we heard comments on users finding that making a complaint to the council was not straightforward and not actionable, some even saw the need to use social media to get the attention of the council.
All of the participants who have submitted a complaint have experienced problems with completing their task.
Define
We synthesised the quantitate and qualitative data from our research using Affinity mapping and created 2 problem statements and a user persona.
Problem statement 1 - complaints
Hackney residents and patrons who are short on time need a way to submit environmental enforcement and noise pollution complaints online because they wish to make the neighbourhood as good as it can be.
Problem statement 2 - council tax
Hackney tenants and homeowners need a more efficient way to pay and resolve council tax related inquiries online in order to comply with the law.
Ideate
With Abigails’s frustrations in mind, we created a few concept cards that would help her make payments faster and would allow her to submit complains to the council easier.
Council tax autofill
Currently, if Abigail wants to pay her council tax manually every month, she would have to have her details in hand (usually in a physical letter). This concept will allow Kathrine to fill her details once during registration and the system would remember and automatically fill the details for her so she wouldn’t need to have to remember them.
Online chat
This will allow Kathrine to log a complaint even if the council is out of working hours. She will also receive a confirmation.
Payments filter
This filter will allow Kathrine to reach checkout faster if she wishes to pay multiple payments at the same time.
Contact us box below key pages
This concept will allow Kathrine to submit questions on complaints directly from the page that she is currently on.
Prototype
It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.
A homepage with focus on accessibility
The accessibility audit that we conducted on the current Hackney council website showed difficulties locating the accessibility settings. of We put accessibility at the heart of our design and created a button that can be accessed from anywhere in the web app. From there, users can adjust their default website setting and change the colour, text size or allow dictation.
We also simplified the home page and information architecture to avoid confusion amongst users.
Current home page / New home page
Making feedback to the council easier
It currently takes 7 whole steps to access the complicated complaint form in the Hackney council website. We simplified the process by adding ‘Report an Issue’ to the home page from where users can leave feedback and complaints to the council. We have provided different ways to do so - via email, phone and online chat.
Current feedback page / New feedback page and chat
Simplifying the payment process
Perhaps one of our biggest changes was the way users pay on the website. The new features will allow users who are logged in to have their information pre filled so they don’t need to search for their council tax reference number and amount. It will also allow them to pay multiple payments at the same time through the ‘Make a payment’ page. This way users can pay their council tax both from the ‘Council Tax’ page or ‘Make a payment’ giving them an extra point of entry.
Current payment page / New payment pages
Usability testing
Most participants paid their council tax through ‘Council tax’ but appreciated having second access point (‘Payments and Fines’)
Most participants understood that by signing in their information will be pre-filled for them
Chat function takes the burden off of the complainant
Accessibility button easy to find but icon might be confusing
Next steps
Improve hierarchy of buttons on wireframes
Continue to improve information hierarchy of the website
Design a desktop version of the flows
Conclusion
We put accessibility at the heart of our design with an assistive button that could be accessed from anywhere within the mobile web app.
Designing to solve every day struggles is the best reward. Paying council tax shouldn’t feel like a chore. The process before was long and complicated but with the features that we introduced, paying council tax could feel like a no brainer.
Submitting complaints and giving feedback to the council was something that we didn’t think that we would encounter. But through our research we saw the need for improving the way users communicate with the council. Hidden convoluted forms are not the answer and made users feel unheard. We put user feedback at the front row allowing people to contact the council with speed and efficiency.