Interagency data exchange and validation platformCommissioned by: The Undersecretary of Regional Development (Ministry of the Interior and Public Security of Chile)A platform to simplify and manage the transfer of budgets and responsibilities to regional governments.
From law to a digital product
The undersecretary needed a digital platform to comply with a new law mandating the decentralization of government functions. This law described a structured process where public institutions could submit their budget proposals for transferring responsibilities from the central government to regional authorities.
The platform needed to interpret and implement this legal framework by providing a centralized system for submitting, validating, and reviewing both qualitative and budget data.
My role as the sole product designer in the team, scoped from taking the product requirements directly from stakeholders, 'translate' the legal framework into digital product patterns, document the logic behind the user-facing interactions, to ultimately design the entire MVP experience. I worked on the foundations during May 2023 and continue through this entire process from October 2023 to February 2024.
After that I also collaborated with QA testing and product owner responsibilities as the app started to be built.
The original UI kit used in this project belongs to digital.gob.cl (deprecated by Oct 2024). For this project, the UI kit was modified by me for accessibility and usability purposes.
Frontend: Rosario Amunátegui, Veronica Caro
Backend: Jaime Hernández
Ops: Paul Eaton
Product Design: Teresa Peña
Previously, this process was cumbersome and inefficient, relying on the manual exchange of spreadsheets via email.
The spreadsheets had the format for the required information, but when received to validate, the institution representatives had modified it, ignoring the undersecretary requirements for information, making the process tedious for all parties, even regional governances didn't wanted to make use of it.
How can we make all our users to want to go through the process ?
The law describing the information requirement asked users to submit a big amount of qualitative and quantitative data. The users filling the information were actively looking for ways to bypass the requirements. I had to design an expedite process for all parties involved but still be strict, so I had to keep in mind:
- Sequential Layer Completion: Design the workflow to guide users through a layered process where each step must be completed before proceeding to the next. Use visual indicators and clear feedback to ensure users understand dependencies and the importance of compliance.
- Transparency: Provide visibility into the status and progress of submissions. Make it clear what steps have been completed and what remains to be done.
- Minimize Redundancy: Reduce the need for users to re-enter information by implementing features like data reuse, and pre-populated fields based on previous inputs.
The foundationsCrafting user flows and early wireframes
The first thing I did to start the process was to sit with the law framework, understand the big picture and the necessary features for the user flow.
of Regional Development
(Ministry of the Interior and Public Security, Chile)
Category: Public Sector
Frontend: Rosario Amunátegui,
Veronica Caro
Backend: Jaime Hernández
Ops: Paul Eaton
Product Design: Teresa Peña
I identified 4 user profiles, each one would have a different level of action and responsibility along the 7 main actions within the process. Two of the main actions were long-form questionnaires.
Once the great scheme of things were identified I could build the user flow and then go into greater detail in every main action with digital wireframes to refine expectations with stakeholders.
Due to confidentiality restrictions, I'm unable to share direct user research for this project. Recognizing the importance of user insights, I leveraged secondary research, industry best practices, and internal data on how this process was held previously to guide my design process.
By focusing on existing knowledge and trends, I ensured that the design remained user-centered, even with limited direct user input.
Choosing the right interactionsDesign iterations and shaping
Once the basics were approved I moved into the details and shaped the definitive features with the team.
of Regional Development
(Ministry of the Interior and Public Security, Chile)
Category: Public Sector
Frontend: Rosario Amunátegui,
Veronica Caro
Backend: Jaime Hernández
Ops: Paul Eaton
Product Design: Teresa Peña
Together with the dev team we had to decide which features would make it into the backlog to make our design and development process fit into schedule and expected deploy date. Notifications and filter bar was pushed to the future backlog.
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The process was new to all users, so I decided to enhance the process status visually, showing all the steps and their individual status. In the future, as user get to know the platform, we plan to make it succinct, show only key information and make it visually lighter.
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The platform contemplated 2 long-form questionnaires. I chose patterns that give users freedom to answer in any order they need, and change their answers as many times they want before submitting through a confirmation page.
Unexpected challenges Last minute changes and setbacks
The stakeholder team had two innovations that came late into the design and development process and they HAD to make it into production or the platform would be useless.
of Regional Development
(Ministry of the Interior and Public Security, Chile)
Category: Public Sector
Frontend: Rosario Amunátegui,
Veronica Caro
Backend: Jaime Hernández
Ops: Paul Eaton
Product Design: Teresa Peña
At first (1) one information requirement was enough for every regional counterpart, but then the stakeholder noticed, in reality, customizations in the information requirement are necessary so we had to redefine and redesign to fit scenario (2), where the first form contains instances for information customization so every regional counterpart receives a custom requirement form.
At first, the requirement to make it possible to download the html was thrown into future backlog. It was noticed by the stakeholder that being able to download the information being submitted as soon as it was available in the platform would add value and help their team to work faster on reports and manipulate data without changing the source of truth.
In order to make possible the first change, I resolved on using accordions matching the regions of the previously associated counterparts, so the first user could fill the forms separately from the same instance, and in case they needed to duplicate information, it would be easily reachable.
For the second one, as a team we had to discuss what would be the quickest and technically feasible solution, and we resolved that adding a button to download the file, and a button to update/generate the file so the user could download all ready information, without adding the empty parts of the process.
Soon. We are still collecting data :). But you can see some of the feedback I've received below.
User testimonials
We received over all positive feedback from all user profiles and insight on what we should work and improve to enhance the experience in the platform.
We were able to carry on with the process seamlessly, our 5 counterparts ditched the spreadsheets and completely relied on this platform to submit the information, all in order and within the deadlines.
The platform worked perfectly to gather the information submission from our regional counterparts but I need to be able to download the numeric data to make aggregated analysis, like csv's on budget tables for example.
I was in charge of filling the first form for 6 different regions in 4 processes, the platform is easy to use, as a first time user I didn't require help to complete the forms. The features are well integrated for what is expected from the process and it was very reliable. I had a bit of difficulty finding out when a field was incomplete, which would stop me from submitting information so I suggest a better way to show when a field is empty.
The information complies with the legal standard we use to evaluate and audit budget information. It was very clear to me where to find the information I needed and what it meant, making the process less bureaucratic. I had no problem knowing were i had to upload my observations as they were in the same place were I was checking forms.