The Role of UX in Post-Pandemic Government Service Delivery
November 29, 2022 | Written By: Nicholas Laurenzio & jp Simbandumwe | 4 Minute Read
It has been a crazy two and a half years, hasn’t it? Despite all the changes, things are starting to return to “normal” - clients are returning to the streets, stores, and to some government service outlets, but they still expect better online tools. Organizations are struggling to continue to maintain budgets and resources for online tools in the face of demands for the restart of some in-person services. At the same time, the Government of Canada is also contending with what a hybrid workforce will look like in the future.
The COVID-19 pandemic caused an abrupt shift towards an increased presence of digital government in Canada. The Government of Canada has also made significant investments in big data, sophisticated analytics tools, accessibility, and cloud computing. However, Canadians have reported mixed levels of satisfaction with the Government of Canada’s digital services. In fact, in Canada’s Digital Ambition 2022 release, the Government of Canada cites that many Canadians have one or more problems with existing government services delivered online, including long completion times for tasks and the inability to find information and services.
The Grand Re-Opening?
During the COVID-19 pandemic, many companies were able to successfully manage people’s increased need for digital shopping and services, however, as shoppers have returned to brick-and-mortar stores, Hootsuite reports that many businesses have failed to maintain quality digital service delivery over the last 12 months. According to Hootsuite, consumers feel neglected – they became accustomed to interacting with businesses and still expect digital services to be available, even as they return in brick-and-mortar stores.
There have also been problems with the Government of Canada’s return to in-person service delivery since the grand re-opening began. Take the sudden increase in the pent-up volume of passport applications – now requiring staff to work overtime and during weekends to process the backlog of applications, as a good example.
Where Do We Go from Here?
The disordered return to in-person service delivery and demand for digital options shows that organizations need a real and meaningful omni-channel digital-first strategy. Government needs to find ways to get citizens to start and ideally end online while fully integrating in-person options. In the case of government, a movement toward omni-channel digital service delivery requires special attention to the quality of digital service delivery between citizens and government departments. The government cannot simply launch an online solution and hope users will easily access it or know where to find information. Indeed, the adage “build it and they will come” just does not work.
Events like the COVID-19 pandemic, a looming recession, a hybrid workplace, and advances in technology, to name a few, present unique opportunities for the government to overhaul how it interacts with Canadians from coast to coast, to coast.
In this complicated environment, we anticipate that budgets for service design and delivery will be harder to get approved. This will make it more important to spend the dollars earmarked for human-centered design and user experience as wisely as possible. The bottom line is that no one knows for sure how this will all play out.
We believe that you can do more with what you already have by testing with real users and evolving incrementally so that you can respond quickly to a changing environment and changing user needs.
How Jumping Elephants Can Help
Conducting usability testing can be a tedious and complicated process without a dedicated team that knows the best practices. We recently launched RapidUXTesting, a fast, repeatable, inexpensive 2-week process that can identify and address problems that undermine the user experience of your digital service. Results from the RapidUXTesting service can be used to improve access to webpages and online services, encourage data-driven decision-making and responsive web design, solve retention problems, perfect the user journey, and validate the need for further improvements to your user's online experience.
Our agile team has conducted more than 300 usability projects. We can help make a BIG IMPACT on your organization in this rapidly changing digital world!