MyCO Mail Center
My Colorado Benefits (MyCO) is Colorado's primary mobile app for managing food and cash benefits. Recognizing the growing demand for an electronic inbox and a paperless initiative, our client partnered with the Deloitte team to develop a new feature.
As part of this project, I I led user research and oversaw the entire design process, including design critique sessions and design audits. After launch, MyCO received over 1,000 five-star reviews, achieved a 4.0 rating, and saw a 20% increase in paperless sign-ups.
Team: 1 BA, 3 Engineers, 1 Designer (me!)
Role: UX Designer
Tools: Figma, Google Suites
Date: Nov 2021 - Mar 2022
1. Discover & Define
USER PAIN POINT
“What’s the point of
a mobile app if I have
to keep checking my physical mailbox?”
BUSINESS PAIN POINT
“How can we be more eco-conscious
while maintaining communication
with users?”
2 PRIMARY RESEARCH METHODS
#1: User Interviews
Gaining insights on users’ technical familiarity and experience on both MyCO and other electronic inboxes
#2: Competitive Analyses
Benchmarking and identifying room for improvement
OPPORTUNITIES AND GAPS BASED ON PRIMARY RESEARCH
OPPORTUNITIES
- With more tech-savvy user base, room for adding complex features like customization (i.e. filters, sort)
- Provide mails with better readability
- Make the mail status more scannable
GAPS
- Sometimes inbox functionalities are buried under other functionalities
- Make it more discoverable
2. Design & Develop
DESIGN ITERATIONS
1
2
Concept Sketches
The sketch illustrates a preliminary design of the MyCO Mail Center, incorporating client requirements, addressing user pain points, and enhancing usability.
Low-Fidelity Wireframes
After refining the concept sketches, we created low-fidelity wireframes to discuss technical constraints and business impacts with our cross-functional team.
Once the team approved the initial designs, we conducted usability testing with five randomly selected MyCO users, presenting low-fidelity wireframes and observing their interactions. The images below show notes from the sessions.
USABILITY TESTING
Despite early collaboration with our engineers and product managers, observing actual user interactions highlighted three major challenges in the proposed design.
CHALLENGE #1:
3 out of 5 users missed message indicators like ‘read’ or ‘new’
CHALLENGE #2:
A lot of information was shown in a small screen and it was overwhelming
CHALLENGE #3:
Users found it difficult to understand what signing up for "Paperless" meant.
DESIGN IMPROVEMENTS
Improvement #1: Noticeable Status Indicators
Pain Point: Some message statuses were difficult to notice or interpret
Solution: Enhance the indicators to be more explicit and visually distinct by making them bolder
Improvement #2: Prioritize Readability
Pain Point: Users found that displaying both the title and mail preview was overwhelming on a small screen
Solution: Limit the displayed content and reduce the number of emails shown
Improvement #3: Provide Contexts
Pain Point: Some users were confused by the term ‘Paperless’
Solution: Provide additional context and explanations about what ‘Paperless’ means and its benefits
3. Deliver
FINAL DESIGN DEMO
Flow #1: Sign-In & Pop-Up Reminder
Lets users sign in or register for the app
After logging in, users will see a quarterly pop-up reminder if they haven't signed up for Paperless
Flow #2: Mail Center Navigation
Easy navigation to the Mail Center from the homepage
New filter and sort features enable users to customize the Mail Center to suit their needs
Flow #3: Signing up for Paperless via Mail Center
One of the primary ways to sign up for the Paperless option, now with increased visibility
More context on what to expect when signing up for Paperless
IMPACTS
