TECH4GERMANY FELLOWSHIP
Service Design in the Public Sector
Designing an ad-hoc Video consultation service with the Deutsche Rentenversicherung (DRV) during COVID-19. Project as part of the Tech4Germany fellowship.
Role
Design Fellow (Service, UX, UI Designer)
Project partner
Deutsche Rentenversicherung as part of the Tech4Germany fellowship
Duration & location
July - Oct 2020 (Berlin, Germany)
CHALLENGE
How can we improve the service provided by the Deutsche Rentenversicherung (German pension insurance) so that all citizens can access relevant and personalized information quickly, independently and easily?
WHAT IS TECH4GERMANY?
Tech4Germany is the German government's fellowship program where experts from the fields of product, design, and engineering work with digital pioneers from ministries and federal authorities on concrete digital projects for 3 months.
HUMAN-CENTERED AND CO-CREATIVE APPROACH
We work closely with the DRV-insured citizens, consultants, and the DRV’s project team to understand the challenge from every perspective.
For the research phase, we did 1:1 interviews with insured citizens and advisors. We analyzed data from previous surveys and shadowed a consultant for one day. We visualized the research in a Blueprint which allowed us to communicate with the DRV team and present the result of the research. Together, we defined key problems in the user’s and advisor’s journeys.
CO-CREATION
After defining the scope of the project, we started the design and prototyping phases. We launched this phase with a co-creation workshop to start thinking and drafting solutions for our challenges. The DRV team participated in the workshop, which allowed them to understand the challenges from the user’s and the consultant’s perspectives.
DESIGN - PROTOTYPE - TEST
After the workshop, we worked internally (only the T4G team) in Design Sprints to quickly design, test, and improve the prototypes. We used Figma to prototype the screens and the interactions. To collect and perform the testing of the prototypes with final users and advisors, we used Miro and Google Meet.
After 9 iterations, the result was a user-friendlier process for DRV-insured citizens to attend to their most urgent questions; and a more efficient process for consultants.
Our prototypes were based on 4 key user needs:
Explaining things easily (using simple language and avoiding complicated terminologies. When necessary, then providing an explanation).
Being transparent in every step of the process (regarding provided information, next steps, options, etc.)
Prioritizing self-service over needing someone else. Users prefer to do their paperwork themselves instead of needing help from someone else.
Offering support based on urgency. Ad-hoc video consultation for urgent matters and video consultation with appointments for other doubts.
DELIVERABLES
Service Blueprint
User flow
Prototype
User Stories
Project documentation
Toolbox of user-centered design methods.
Case Study
List of deliverables for the client and different stakeholders.
Example of a deliverable explaining what it is, why it is important, and when in the process will they need it.
"If you can have the ad-hoc video consultation ready by Monday, I'll use it right away."
— Client of the DRV during one of the last tests of the prototype.
This project was developed during the Tech4Germany Fellowship
T4G Fellows: Vanessa Espinosa, Julian Wildmann, Inken Alber, Leonhard Melzer.
DRV team: Manuela Kroeger, Matthias Flügge, Andrea Vojacek, Ulrike Hundt.
Learn more about the project