Digitalising client
onboarding
Application for My Way gGmbH
organisation employees
My Role:
UX/UI Design
Duration:
3 Weeks
Project Specifics
My Role, Duration & Scope
Tools & Methodologies
Problem Statement
My Way gGmbH is a Berlin-based organisation focusing on assisting individuals at risk of losing their homes due to various challenges such as debts, legal issues, or health problems. The organization operates with an open-door policy, welcoming all individuals seeking social support.
The My Way office receives numerous visitors daily, each of whom must undergo an intake process conducted by employees to assess their eligibility for assistance. Currently, this process is manual and time-consuming, beginning with employees filling out paper forms to initiate the intake of a new client.
peak into solution
Slow Intake of New Clients Process
Digital Intake Form
The current intake of new clients process is inefficient and still includes a Paper intake form which later is typed in the excel document by the team leader. A digital Intake form could speed up the process.
Inefficient Client Onboarding
Client Page
Now Team Leader can evaluate the client and assign him/her to one of the employees in one click. Additionally, Client Page includes all information gathered from the Intake Form and all the steps, tasks and appointments related to the case. This setup facilitates easy case management, allowing for comprehensive oversight and organization of client-related activities.
Discovery & Research
I had the first conversation with an employee from My Way organisation, who told me about the way organisation struggles to cope with the amount of people who come searching for help. I had created the Lean UX Canvas to prepare myself for research.
I kicked off this project by doing desk research to understand the big picture of the social field in Berlin and what German system offers. After I had some understanding about the social sector, it was important to identify the precise problem of My Way gGmbH organisation I am aiming to solve.
I had conducted 5 stakeholder interviews to find out more about the problems and processess in My Way organisation and how employees feel about them.
Research Goal
Learn about the intake of new clients step-by-step process.
Identify problems with current intake process.
Interview Requirements
5 stakeholder interviews.
Current employee of My Life My Way organisation.
Works with intake of the new clients.
In-depth Interviews
Stakeholder interviews were conducted with 5 employees from the Berlin-Friedrichshain office of My Life My Way organisation. The goal was to understand how company works and what are the processes and gaps in the intake process.
Employees find the intake process of new clients frustrating because it is not efficient. Moreover, employees lack a proper database shared between different offices.
Current Intake Process
When I was finished with employee interviews, I analyzed insights in the Affinity Diagram and draw key findings. Then I have created a Service Blueprint diagram to look at the entire client intake process. I have listed all the activities that happen at each stage, performed by the different roles involved. Here is a quick intake process interpretation.
Defining needs & frustrations
User Personas
After conducting and analyzing interviews with My Way employees, I developed user personas. These personas provided valuable insights into the main pain points experienced by users and identified opportunities to address these challenges.
Julian
Social Worker
Berlin, My Way GmbH
Julian is an employee at My Way organisation. He likes helping people and has strong communication skills. He has 10 years of experience in the field of social work and has experience with many difficult life situations people in Berlin face.
Frustrations
Julian finds intake of the new client process time consuming.
He struggles to find back information because paper forms get lost.
There is no user-friendly platform where Julian could redirect people who are searching for help.
Needs
a more efficient way to do client intakes.
Database of clients.
a platform where people can be redirected in order to receive the right help outside office hours.
Stefan
Potential client
Berlin
Stefan struggles with German bureaucracy, and missed some appointments with Job center. Now he has no income and because he couldn’t pay his rent he lost his home. On top of that, he has high debts and he is mentally unwell because of all the problems in his life.
Frustrations
Struggles with finances and German bureaucracy.
He doesn’t know where to get help.
Feels overwhelmed by all his personal problems.
Needs
He needs support and mentoring. Somebody who can clearly plan steps with him, so he can get back on his feet.
Pain Points to Gain Points
After analysing the data from stakeholder interviews with various UX tools, I have identified the main pain points. Below I provide some opportunities for improvement.
Paper intake forms get easily lost. Often times we cannot find back information about a client.
Develop a digital intake form, so that information is safely stored digitally.
Paper intake forms are brought to the team leader, who then fills in the most important information digitally. After evaluating if the person fits organisations requirements team leader assigns a social worker to complete the intake process.
Digitalise intake process for all parties involved, so that it is more efficient and more people can be helped.
Clients often switch between My Way gGmbH offices. We don't have a digital database where information about clients could be easily found.
Provide a digital database/archive to store information about clients, so that it is accessible for all My Way offices.
Ideation process
Early Wireframes
When I had users' needs and frustrations clarified, I could start brainstorming for solution ideas. I had decided to design an application for employees due to time constraints.
After brainstorming design concepts and ideas I created Low-Fidelity wireframes. Then I moved to Mid-Fidelity screens and clarified the basic structure, layout and content of the application. I created wireframes of the Employee Dashboard, Employee Account, Client's Page, Current Intakes, Archive and Calendar screens.
Stakeholder Feedback
I planned a stakeholder meeting to go through the contents which should be included in the Intake Form. I also discussed the wireframes and made the following changes. Overall, the screens were understood by stakeholders and they could follow the flow.
Intake Form Button Placement
Initially, the design included the Intake Form button only on the Home and Current Intakes pages. To make it easier to access the Intake Form, the button leading to the form was placed above the navigation bar so it can be found on every page of the application and in the same place.
Intake Form Structure
I have finalized the structure and content of the Intake Form, including answer categories tailored to the requirements of My Way employees. Additionally, adjustments to the layout and design were implemented to minimize scrolling and create a more compact form.
The Most Important Information for Current Intakes Page
After presenting the Mid-Fidelity wireframes, I discovered that some information was unnecessary for the onboarding process. Since the project's scope was solely focused on onboarding, details such as start and finish dates of the contract were irrelevant and subsequently removed in later design iterations.
Following this realization, I consulted with the employee from My Way to determine the most crucial information required for employees, which includes:
Date of first contact with the client
Phone number
Amt (Account Manager Team) responsible for that person
Onboarding status
I then updated the client information accordingly and incorporated a drop-down menu to track the various steps of the onboarding process.
UX Challenges
The primary challenge of this project was to identify the problem which is possible to solve in the limited amount of time. Before choosing the final UX direction, I had brainstorming sessions, where I came up with three options I considered developing:
User-friendly application, where people in need of help can find various social help organizations in Berlin.
Create an application where people could complete an online quiz to specify the problems they are experiencing and then get narrowed down organisations which could help them.
Create an application for My Way organisation employees focusing on digitalising and improving intake process of new clients.
Ultimately, I made the decision (in the interest of simplicity and time constraints) to focus on the third option, designing a solution that digitalises intake of new clients process. Developing this solution would increase work efficieny what would lead to more people receiving help.
Prototype
Hi-Fidelity Frames
I have updated the brand colours and fonts to fit accessibility requirements. My Way gGmbH has a very strong brand identity and while working on this project it was important for me to let it shine.
This application was developed for My Life My Way employees to increase efficiency of new client intake process. More flawless process would allow employees to help more people. Desktop version has been developed because computer is the main device used by employees to work on their clients cases.
Dashboard
Employees can manage their daily tasks and appointments related to intake process of new clients.
Intake Form
Progress bar guides the user through topics of the intake form.
Drop-downs help to categorise answers and speed up the intake process and user-friendly buttons made for a speedy answer selection.
Client Page
After intake form has been filled, information is stored on the clients page under Additional Information category.
Now Team leader can easily assign the responsible social worker with a few clicks. All tasks, appointments and files can be organised and tracked.
Steps of the intake process can be easily tracked with selecting a step from the drop-down menu.
Current Intakes
Each employee has his/her own list of clients assigned for onboarding. It is made easy to review and edit client pages.
The "Edit" function leads to the client's page.
The "Export" function allows for the export of all information once the onboarding process has been finalized and the client is permanently onboarded.
The "Archive" option is used when a client who started the onboarding process does not return. Often, people return in the future, so it is helpful for employees to have the information stored to avoid repeating the entire process.
The "Delete" option allows for the permanent removal of the client from the list of intakes.
Intake Archive
Intake archive includes:
People who have started the intake process but did not return. The option to move the case to current intakes is available once the client returns.
People who have completed the intake process and can be accepted as clients. Information is stored for future reference.
Outcomes
This project is special to me because it was my first collaboration with an existing Berlin-based company. I am glad that employees of My Way gGmbH agreed to answer my questions and are willing to cooperate further to turn this application into reality.
I think that working on a project for an existing company was the best way for me to speed up my learning process. I grew tremendously during this project because I felt motivated to create a valuable application for employees and clients of My Way gGmbH.
While creating wireframes, I found it challenging to organize large amounts of information in a clear and understandable manner. I have tried various different design options while keeping in mind the goal of keeping the application simple and user-friendly.
In the near future I will hold an official presentation of my design to My Way gGmbH organisation managers. After that I will apply their feedback to the UI and will discuss next steps.