Modernizing Federal Applications and Platforms

3/12/2021

Analytica leads the modernizing of federal applications and web platforms that incorporate a strong human centered design and focus on customer experience and citizen engagement as part of building modern data-centric, federal enterprise applications. Our client, the Internal Revenue Service, had an mission critical web application that was data-centric and had significant potential, but had low citizen and stakeholder engagement.

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The Challenge

To meet the increasing demand for simplified access to web-based information, the IRS needed to modernize a mission critical web application that interfaced with a robust data architecture environment. This web application is a core component of IRS business operations by supporting analysts, researchers, citizens and stakeholders. This website had not been redesigned in many years and was experiencing poor performance across usability and Section 508 accessibility as evident in website logs and analytics.

Our Approach

Analytica’s product development methodology is founded on an HCD approach to defining and solving modernization efforts. This means that our integrated team focuses on the entire customer experience, delving deeply as needed into specific aspects of the user experience. This approach ensures that the customer experience is at the center of our modernization initiative.

We employ HCD to make Analytica’s data-centric products easily understandable and highly usable so that consumers of the application can use the underlying data and information with the best approach possible. This approach is integrated into each Agile Sprint across user research, design, backlog, planning, development, and demo sessions.

As part of this work, our researchers and designers engaged with users using a multi-modal approach that encompassed interviews, field observations, and surveys to understand the user experience and how they would most intuitively and efficiently interface with the application. Our user research process, based upon customer requirements, also entails developing personas and using journey maps along with other tools available to identify user goals, tasks, and pain points in interactions. We use this information to design prototypes, mock-ups, and user stories. This research then drives the development of engaging UI/UX designs, leveraging government best practices as identified by the U.S. Digital Services, 18F, and Agency-specific Playbook, as well as commercial design practices from organizations such as IDEO and the Nielsen Norman Group.

The Solution

Analytica modernized the UX/UI for a mission critical, data-centric website for the IRS, significantly improving the ease of access, search, and navigation for users. Our redesign solution also promotes self-service and community-based models so that users can more quickly find what they need on the website and minimize need for external support, which has helped reduce the volume of support desk tickets or calls by over 30 percent.

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