Client
USAC
Service(s)
UX/UI
Industry
Government
Year(s)
2017-2018
Programs used
The goal of USAC or Universal Service Administation Company is to make broadband service available to everyone nationwide regardless of income or location, including tribal regions and rural communities. However, such an undertaking requires interfaces that allow applicants (known as eligible telecommunications carriers or ETCs) to easily upload and interpret data for FCC approval. During the UX/UI overhaul of all of USAC's tools and website known as "Indigo," my team was tasked with the initial redesign of the State Access and High Cost portal (HUBB) and some their associated subtools and flows.
Problem
The original HUBB tools were extremely difficult to use for new users. For example, the tool didn't clarify to users if the data they uploaded was incomplete or if the user needed to complete specific tasks, like certifying their data. The goal of Indigo was to not only comply with WCAG guidelines, but also make important but tedious bureaucratic processes easy to navigate and use.
Planning
After interviewing stakeholders and users about the HUBB tools as well as observing various user tests of the tools, a few key areas of improvement were identifed:
• A high level view of a user's progress on various certifications without having to delve back into the specific certification tool or flow
• A way (or an assortment of ways) to quickly see errors to be corrected by the user, such as uncertified data or forms
• Integrated map display of the data points logged by engineers in the field
Selected design changes
Scroll to see notations.
Result
Upon the first launch of the portal, many users reported that it cut the time they spent certifying their data "in half." The overall look and feel of the HUBB/State Access tools was praised as feeling less "coldly bureaucratic" and more "user friendly" without diminishing the any of the prior capabilities of the tools.
