Additional support for Universal Credit claimants
Date
Feb - July 2024
Organisation
UK Government
Role
Interaction Designer
Activities & deliverables
user interviews
field research
discovery workshop
user flows
wireframes
interaction design
prototyping
user testing
Overview
I led the redesign of the Additional Support section within Universal Credit (UC). Collaborating with a cross-functional team, we focused on improving the usability and overall engagement of the agent-facing service. From initial UX discovery to prototyping and testing, I helped shape an intuitive interaction design that was refined and optimized based on user feedback.
Agents capture accessibility requirements and other issues to provide claimants with the support they need
User problem
Inaccurate & out-of-date information
DWP agents help thousands of people every day, many of whom have additional needs, such as mental health conditions, language barriers, or accessibility challenges. To support these claimants in the best way, this information is captured to provide them with the necessary support needed. However, this part of the service includes many fundamental UX issues and overtime agents have used it less, and therefore lost trust in the information stored.
Core issues:
Missing functionality and poor usability made updating the information difficult
Support information became more inaccurate and out-dated over time
Agents couldn’t always trust the information they were reading
Claimants weren't being provided the right support
Business objective
Improve usability to increase agent usage
Making the service accessible and effective for all users, especially those with additional support needs, was a critical priority. To enhance the accuracy of claimant details and ensure agents had the information they needed, we aimed to increase their engagement with the platform. This required us to focus on making the system more intuitive and user-friendly.
Key objectives:
Improve usability to reduce friction and make the platform easier to navigate
Increase agent engagement by simplifying the process for accessing and updating claimant details
Provide more accurate information to agents, enabling them to offer better support to claimants
Ensure accessible experience for agents who also require additional support
UX discovery
Defining product scope with field research
To better understand the challenges faced by both agents and claimants, we conducted field research at a Job Centre. Engaging directly with both groups gave us valuable insights into claimant support needs and provided a comprehensive view of agents’ tasks and responsibilities. These findings were used to shape the initial scope for improvements.
UX discovery activities:
Conducted in-person research at Job Centres, including interviews and shadowing sessions with agents to uncover workflow pain points and usability challenges
Spoke directly with claimants to understand their support needs, expectations, and barriers to accessing help
Mapped end-to-end workflows and existing content structures to identify inefficiencies, missing functionality, and opportunities for improvement
Facilitated collaborative workshops to synthesise findings, define high-level information architecture, and align on priorities with policy, operations, and content teams
Design highlights
UX decisions & trade-offs
Creating an archived view
In the existing experience, removed needs disappeared from the system completely, with no record or history provided. We changed this experience by removing the ability to permanently delete, and archiving issues instead. This allowed agents easy access to both current and past support needs, providing a holistic view of a claimant.
Before
Removing a support need was difficult and resulted in what felt like a system reset with no history of data.
After
Agents can seamlessly add and remove support needs with updated notes on the change, providing both an active and archived state for a claimant's needs.
Trade-off
This meant that support needs couldn't be permanently removed, which may be necessary if a mistake was made. In the short term, this could be solved with the update feature, providing a note to explain why it was removed. Long term, we wanted to provide a 'destructive' delete action for this scenario.
Adding friction and system limitations
Previously, agents created duplicates of 'other' support needs, often incorrectly using this type instead of a pre-determined selection. To overcome this issue, we implemented a limited number of 'other' options that they could use for each claimant.
Before
Agents created duplicate entries and use the custom option of 'Other' when there was already an appropriate pre-determined type that was more suitable.
After
Agents were provided visibility of the system and it's limitations via a 'remaining number' counter, which subsequently encouraged agents to first check active and past needs before potentially creating a duplicate.
Trade-off
This change added some friction to the agent's journey, which was usually quite frowned upon. However, allowing agents to create unlimited custom entries was contributing to in-accurate data and more frustration later in their journey.
Design
Modular, intuitive interaction design
The redesigned experience enables agents to complete tasks efficiently by following a clear, linear workflow - breaking complex processes into manageable, well-defined steps. The design prioritised usability, familiarity, and consistency, making it easier for agents to navigate and trust the system.
Design highlights:
Linear task flows with feedback and confirmation after each step, reducing cognitive load and helping agents stay on track
Modular layout to separate content and actions clearly, making it easier to scan and act quickly
Reused patterns and components from the GOV.UK Design System and the Universal Credit design library to maintain familiarity and consistency across services
Continuation of existing design language, aligning with other parts of the UC service to create a seamless experience for agents already using the platform
Accessible by design, ensuring compatibility with assistive technologies and meeting WCAG standards
Outcomes
Increased usage & accuracy
Working on a live service means small changes can have a big impact. We took a "fail fast" approach, iterating many times based on the feedback from user testing. Once live, usage increased, providing better data on claimant support needs.