UX/UI • Fictional Project
Govault 2.0
A continuation of a fictional exercise to rethink about the user experience across all Singapore's e-Gov.sg services.
The team over at GovTech Singapore / Open Government Products has done a real amazing job building new experiences (TraceTogether app, vaccine registration, etc.) and redesigning existing ones — all in the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Still, I believe more could be done to streamline the experiences into a single website and corresponding app to provide services and information based on users' journeys and mental models, rather than on how the individual government agencies are organised.
Govault 1.0 was first published on September 5, 2018.
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This project was started years ago at a time where logging into any of the government agency's website require entering a six-digit One-Time Password that is generated via SMS to one's registered mobile phone. Since then, the team over at GovTech Singapore has made vast improvements, such as launching the Singpass app that allows users to quickly log into web services or authorise transactions with just a scan of a QR code generated in real time.
Today, there are still many different government agency sites here in Singapore, with some bearing a .gov.sg domain (e.g. www.cpf.gov.sg and www.iras.gov.sg, where CPF and IRAS are statutory agencies) and others .sg (e.g. www.ns.sg and www.activehealth.sg) as well as non-.gov.sg ones.
Some sites may belong entirely to the respective ministries and agencies themselves, while others are more narrowed in a sense where they seek to provide information as well as services that fall under the purview of that agency.
Let us put things into perspectives by considering the journey of a male Singaporean citizen preparing to travel out of Singapore for leisure amidst the current COVID-19 pandemic and travel restrictions:
Given that there is a lot of useful information available in a timely or updated manner available to the public, one still cannot help but to feel that the information seems a little scattered at times. It thus requires a certain degree of cognitive load upon the user to remember the various tasks (or jobs-to-be-done) he or she has to do to achieve their desired goals and top-of-mind.
It is here where I believe that streamlining all the services from different government agencies into a single official website and its respective app could definitely prove beneficial.
Of course, this task is by no means an easy one, given that existing data and information might not "speak" to each other so easily, and more importantly, one has to ask how best to [1] structure the information and [2] provide the services so that users can readily complete their desired goals.
Let us now take a look at some proposed features of such a unified app concept:
Quick-accessible cards that reveals more information when expanded. For instance, the COVID-19 Vaccination Status card would reveal one's vaccination status (as of when), and the various vaccines administered. Reminders to take the added booster shots and the registration for a time slot to do so could reside here due to proximity.
Perhaps other COVID-19-related matters (reporting of one's COVID-19 positive status for contact tracing purposes) as well as Frequently Asked Questions (e.g. 'What should I do if I contract COVID-19?'), etc. could be integrated here as well.
Examples of how services currently handled by different ministries/statutory boards could be provided through a single app.
For instance, someone could check his current social security savings at the Central Provident Fund section of the app, and switch to view his income tax for the new year at the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore section of the app.
(Or better still, to view both social security savings and income tax information without having to navigate to different sections currently classified as the names of the agencies themselves, which could potentially take away and lighten the cognitive load on the part of the user.
Note: This also serves as my own critique of my designs presented above.)
The Central Provident Fund Board is the agency responsible to help citizens save for retirement, etc., while the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore is the agency responsible for the administration of taxes and enterprise disbursement schemes.
Beyond just streamlining all the governmental services into a single website and a corresponding app, perhaps we can look further to other opportunities as well:
• Bringing the data forward — a user can be notified that his or her passport will soon be expiring and have a validity of less than six months. Through the app, he can also be informed that there is a longer processing time for passport application to be expected, due to the recent relaxing of COVID-19 travel restrictions. From there, he or she can better decide to proceed with the passport renewal process immediately to avoid potential delays to receiving his renewed passport.
• Moving away from providing services in silo (i.e. services from each government agencies) to a needs-based approach — relevant services and information from various agencies come together in a structure based on the user's journey and mental model e.g. in preparation for travel during the COVID-19 pandemic, one would have a couple of things to do via different agency sites: [1] ensure that his or her passport has not expired (https://www.ica.gov.sg/documents/passport/apply), [2] ensure that his or her vaccination certificate has been notarised and authenticated (https://www.notarise.gov.sg/), [3] for males, ensure that he does not forget to apply exit permit (https://www.ns.sg/nsp/portal/site/mindef/apply-for-exit-permit/info), etc. If still in doubt, he or she can readily access FAQs.
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