The Victorian Government needed to better understand the digital needs and expectations of its citizens.
There are hundreds of life events that require us to transact with our government. Anything from registering your car to getting a copy of a birth certificate.
The Victorian Government engaged us to better understand the attitudes, needs and service preferences of its citizens as part of a service transformation.
We needed to act swiftly to design and implement a mixed method research program.
Service Centres
We designed and operationalised two temporary whole-of-government customer service centres, offering citizens a ‘one stop shop’. These service centres acted as service prototypes, testing whether a centralised, all-in-one offering would be attractive to citizens.
The service centres also worked as user experience labs. Citizens could use mobile devices, tablet devices or desktop computers to complete a range of existing ‘pure online’ or ‘partially online’ transactions within the store, with staff assistance.
I wouldn’t know if it was the federal or state government, I don’t know who is responsible for this or that.
Barbara, 79 years old, Shepparton
A single digital experience brought together hundreds of diverse transactions, from renewing a drivers' licence to registering as a beekeeper. We worked with the Department of Premier and Cabinet, VicRoads, Births Deaths & Marriages and the Department of Environment and Primary Industries to trial a unified, end-to-end service experience.
In addition to design research, Today developed the brand, signage, digital and in-store experience of the prototype service centres.
Human Analytics
We designed the centres to capture as much data as possible, in the physical space as much as the digital space. Visitors were interviewed by staff as they entered and exited the centres. We used under-floor wireless routers to monitor the movement of people around the centres, counting foot traffic, generating heat maps and understanding dwell zones.
We tracked each aspect of online behaviour, connecting this information with interview and physical data, in order to provide a comprehensive snapshot of each service experience.
Contextual Interviews
Government services need to work well for everybody; it was important to understand the needs of citizens outside mainstream service requirements. We conducted a series of interviews and workshops, with an emphasis on those that may experience barriers due to disability, language, literacy, culture, digital access or geography.
Outcome
The project was the largest and most significant surveys of Victorians’ service preferences ever undertaken.
In total, 3,052 people visited the centres over the 83 days they were open. It was part of a program of work which led to the establishment of Service Victoria, a new whole-of-government agency tasked with service transformation.