Enhancing Taxpayer Experience: Streamlining Payment Plan Management
Overview
Taxpayers with an Online Account are required to utilize the 'OPA' system for any revisions or updates to their payment plans. Currently, challenges persist within the OPA application. Here, I have integrated this updated feature into 'OLA' to streamline the process and mitigate such inadvertent errors.
Role: UX Designer
Tools: Sketch, Invision, Miro
Duration: July 2023-Jan 2024
Understanding the problem
Lack of visual hierarchy
Which caused a cluttered interface where elements competed for attention without any discernible order of importance.
Users were confronted with an overwhelming amount of information, making it difficult to focus on key actions or content.
NavigationThe product suffered from ambiguous information architecture and redundancy in functionalities, resulting in a challenging navigation experience for users. This ambiguity increased the likelihood of users losing context as they navigated through the application.
DiscoverabilityUnclear primary and secondary button differentiation reduced discoverability, complicating users' decision-making process.
Current design
Current flow
In order to revise their payment plan, taxpayers must navigate to an external IRS website that is outdated and lacks user-friendly design,
resulting in numerous usability challenges and frustrations.
Heuristic evaluation
The Bank Account Info fields are duplicated on the form, with the left side showing existing data and the right side presenting empty fields for updates. The way the instructions and empty fields are laid out leads taxpayers to overlook guidance, which can result in unnecessary re-inputting of their information. Upon landing on the Bank Account fields screen, taxpayers are not provided with any instructions informing them why it is necessary to complete this page Step indicator on each of the screens is not accurate and outdated IRS uses #0059C #002D62.
User flows
Wireflows
Final Design
Key takeaways
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Due to the accelerated timeline, comprehensive research around the product before and after the design phase was not feasible. Therefore, our understanding of the pain points primarily relied on heuristic evaluation and insights provided by stakeholders.
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It's crucial to advocate for my design decisions, as I strongly believe in the rationale behind them, even if they don't align with the initial
expectations of stakeholders.
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It is vital to continually seek feedback on designs, especially in the absence of research opportunities.
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Understanding the significance of teamwork, it became clear that active communication across diverse teams was essential for acquiring and comprehending data.
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