Immigration Website UX Research and Prototype
Designing an easier, more effective education and tracking system for long-term immigrants into the US
Quick Facts
-
Role
UX Researcher and Interaction Designer (Team Project)
-
Timeline
3 months
-
Tools
Figma, Usability Testing
-
Scope
MVP Desktop Concept
High fidelity mock of user account creation step
High fidelity mock of user task completion. User is currently part way through I-94 task.
High fidelity mock of user on landing page, viewing completed/remaining tasks
High fidelity mock of user scheduling required appointments. They have already completed scheduling a drivers license
High fidelity mock of user viewing nearby banks for bank account task
Overview
The process of immigrating to the United States is difficult, especially on your own. There are many steps and processes you need to understand, track, and complete; all with information scattered around the internet with no clear connections.
Personas & Affinity Mapping
Affinity Mapping
After interviewing participants, we consolidated our findings into an affinity diagram with 3 main themes: Foundations, Life in the USA, and User Behavior. We organized our findings into each, and found the following key insights.
Immigration is not a singular event, but series of steps that begin in a home country
Available information online was outdated or incomplete
Reliance on non-official sources (Peers, online forums, etc.)
Key Insights, Foundations
Unfamiliarity with U.s. Credit system creates significant challenges with future dependent tasks
Frequently missing important steps due to ignorance of system
High levels of stress navigating advanced bureaucratic systems
Key Insights, Life in the USA
Primary source of information: friends, peers, family members who have already immigrated
Pain point: determining if an information was trustworthy
Strong desire for reliable, up-to-date information
Key Insights, User Behavior
Personas
From the findings within the affinity diagram, we created 3 distinct personas to focus our development efforts on:
Guided Elena
Recently relocated for a job
Has some guidance from employer regarding immigration
Relocating with family members (husband)
Prioritizes accuracy over speed
Can only research after working all day, cognitive load
Solo David
Recently relocated for a job
No assistance from employer or work peers regarding immigration
Relocating alone
Gets caught in bureaucratic loops (needs house to open bank account, needs bank account to rent house, etc.)
Tech-savvy; used to using internet to research problems
Strategic Sofia
Been living in the U.S. for 5 years
Already navigated the initial immigration steps (paperwork, taxes, etc.) and is comfortable in everyday tasks
Requires guidance on more complex systems (finances, healthcare)
Focused on making the “smartest” choices; avoiding hidden fees or predatory contracts
Anxiety over complex systems, cultural differences
Testing & Iteration
Cognitive Walkthrough (Peer Evaluation)
Before testing with real users, we conducted a cognitive walkthrough with peers on a low-fidelity mock to identify obvious interaction friction and found the following usability issues:
When the selection of a task opened the next steps, it looked too visually similar to check boxes. This led to users believing they marked the task as completed, rather than progressing within the task itself.
Solution: Add side arrow on task box to indicate that selection opens new pane. Removed extraneous details (check boxes) and instead changed visual design to disable unavailable tasks
Once users navigated to the appointment task, they were unaware of what action to take after viewing the available options.
Solution: Introduced direct call-to-action button and redesigned elements to directly correlate with each individual task
Users were confused on how locations populated in related tasks (finding nearest banks, DMVs) and couldn’t find how to change the location they wanted to search in
Solution: Added a descriptive label detailing how initial results are populated based on information provided during on-boarding and introduced an input field for searching in other areas
Usability Experiment
We had our three participants complete the following tasks in a random order from our low-fidelity prototype and using the Google search engine using a within-subjects design:
Retrieve I-94 - Determine the steps required in obtaining an I-94 in the U.S.
Obtain SSN - Determine the steps required in obtaining an SSN, including locating the nearest SSN office
Open a bank account - Find the required documents needed for opening a bank account and locate the nearest bank
Schedule a DMV appointment - Locate the nearest DMV and determine the steps required in scheduling an appointment
We measured and recorded the following metrics after each trial during testing:
Performance - Time for user to navigate through each task (in seconds)
User Satisfaction - User satisfaction using a Likert 1-5 questionnaire
Performance - Number of errors during navigation through tasks
Mental Workload - NASA TLX scale
Usability - System Usability Score
Due to time constraints and minimal number of participants, most measurements lacked statistical significance. However, we found the following significant measurements:
Statistical significantly decreased amount of time for scheduling-based tasks (Bank account, DMV)
Average SUS of 85.83
NASA TLX lowered mental demand and effort
These indicate emerging evidence that the proposed website design can enhance user satisfaction, improve efficiency for task resolution, and reduce cognitive workload for newly arrived immigrants.
Full details and measurements can be found in the final report (available upon request).
Reflection & Next Steps
What I Learned:
How to deliver a functional MVP within a strict deadline
How to conduct successful usability experiments with participants
Next Steps:
Increase sample size to increase accuracy of measured data
Introduce mock database to simulate back-end functionality for scheduling and research based tasks
Design edge-case functionality (error cases, missing data, etc.)