UX Case Study
Enhance the Life Experience of Massachusetts Constituents
Research and set up a pilot project
Team Project
Mass Digital-Life Experience Team
My Responsibility
Participate in In-Depth Research
Created Visual Tools for Understanding
Tools
Miro
Figma
Adobe Illustrator
Context
Government services are often difficult to navigate, as most people don’t understand how the system works—they just want access to what they need. To address this, the Life Experience team adopted a constituent-focused model to simplify access without requiring knowledge of government operations.
The team faced the challenge of finding an agency partner willing to embrace this model and rethink service delivery. This new approach posed challenges for both sides: the team needed to define the scope of work, and the agency had to adapt to new workflows and clarify relationships between divisions.
As a digital intern, my role was to support the team in clarifying and communicating its mission, help the team narrow the scope of the project, and assist partner agencies in understanding the challenges and complexities of constituents' life experiences.
A Venn diagram illustrates the relationships between the team, partners, and constituents in the pilot project.
Process
Clarify and Communicate Our Mission
Mapping constituents' challenges
At the start of the project, the team had to quickly understand the challenges people face when interacting with the government during key life experiences. However, their familiarity with government structures and processes sometimes created blind spots, making it harder to fully grasp people’s actual experiences. To address this, I created a relationship map using the example of tenants facing eviction, providing a visual way to highlight the complex challenges constituents encounter.
The map showed that people facing eviction often have to navigate multiple disconnected systems, like courts, mediation services, housing departments, and local offices. This lack of coordination forces people to spend valuable time figuring out where to go for help, causing frustration and shaping a negative view of the government.
Relationship Map: Facing Eviction
Using visual tools to deliver the mission
Improving constituents' life experiences requires collaboration across multiple government departments. To encourage support from potential partners, the team needed to clearly communicate the project’s mission and importance. I created a graphic and ecosystem map based on a shared experience—the COVID-19 pandemic—to visually demonstrate the need for better collaboration and improved services.
The graphics illustrated how, during the pandemic, people had many questions about topics like disease trends and vaccination locations but didn’t know which agency to contact. No single agency had all the answers, so effective public support required agencies to work together behind the scenes, coordinating resources and providing clear information across multiple channels.
Narrow the Scope of the Project
Identifying a practical life experience and selecting a project partner
The extension of my internship allowed me to contribute to the next phase of the project. In this phase, the team focused on selecting a life experience as a pilot that would have a meaningful impact on constituents and the best chance of success for us and our partners. I created ecosystem and journey maps for multiple life experiences, which helped the team quickly assess feasibility and identify necessary government collaborators. This process narrowed the project's focus and clarified potential partnerships.
Ultimately, we invited the Department of Early Education and Care (EEC) to partner in this pilot project due to its high impact, relatively independent and complex operating systems, and shared goals with our team: improving the life experience of the people they serve.
Ecosystem Map: Losing Jobs
Journey Map: Families Applying for Child Care Financial Assistance
Deepen Our Understanding of the Partner
Organizing EEC’s services for educators
The mission of EEC is to support the healthy growth and development of all children by providing high-quality programs and resources to families and communities. Since the end of the pandemic, the demand for early childhood educators has surged. EEC aims to collaborate with our team to explore ways to improve the experience for educators and those entering the field when interacting with EEC. To help the team understand EEC’s services for educators, I organized the relevant information and services posted on Mass.gov into a structured diagram.
The diagram highlighted how the site’s complex structure, outdated content, and multiple application portals make it hard for educators to find answers on their own. As a result, many educators turn to EEC staff for help, adding significantly to their daily workload.
Analyzing educator pain points
To communicate effectively with partners and stakeholders, the team needed to understand the pain points educators faced when interacting with EEC, as well as the challenges EEC was encountering. To help identify common concerns, I analyzed recent emails from educators and tickets submitted through the ServiceNow platform. By extracting keywords and themes, I helped the team summarize and define these issues, allowing them to communicate their findings more clearly in future meetings with EEC and educators.
What People Are Saying About Becoming an Educator
“The process to upload certification became troublesome. I am still having a hard time making sure files are in the appropriate size and format.”
— Educator 1
“There needs to be a way to still mail in the certification paperwork if the online submission is not going to be successful/easy to be done.”
—Educator 2
Latest Updates
With the end of my internship, my contribution to the project has concluded. However, the team is moving forward, with the short-term goal of launching a minimum viable product in early 2025 to help educators navigate the challenges of the certification process.