Rhythm for Civics
Civic Engagement Platform
Rhythm for Civics is a responsive cloud-based platform that allows citizens and businesses to manage their government interactions on any device.
Categories
Enterprise
Public Sector
Responsive
Transaction Platform
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Role
Product Designer
Company
Infor
Status
General Availability
Rhythm for Civics Overview
Rhythm is a cloud-based platform that serves different industries varying from Manufacturing to Healthcare for tailored customer experiences. I was part of the team that designed the experience on the public sector arm of the platform, Rhythm for Civics. It provides a friendly interface for businesses and citizens to have complete visibility into their projects, from planning and applying for renewals, to paying fees, permitting and license requests, etc.
Below is an overall summary of what the Rhythm platform has to offer, and was leveraged to serve the needs of the public sector for Civics.
Challenges
The platform offers a variety of solutions for each different sector, so naturally we had many challenges to overcome along the way. Below are some of examples of our biggest challenges:
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Maintaining consistency across every industry vertical, each with different design and development teams
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Technical challenges and limitations building on an older code base
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No concrete user research or journeys formulated before start, but had to hit the ground running due to timeline
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Creating a base experience that has the flexibility to be customized to varying degrees
When finalized, we would apply the interface designs in accordance to the UI Kit or create new elements for the experience.
Process
When I joined the team, the project had already started but much of the foundation had not been set yet. I had the opportunity to help build this product from the ground up. We would receive requirement documents from the Business Analysts, where we would collaborate to create varying levels of fidelity of flows and wireframes. These would go through rounds of iterations based off of the team's feedback and internal user testing when possible.
The Details
Research
Early on in the design phase, we were able to do interviews with potential users of our software with a focus revolving around the current permit/licensing process. Their feedback was highly valued and helped influence the designs and flows throughout the experience. The team and I then created flows to represent these processes. See example below:
When the Minimum Viable Product was nearly developed, the team traveled to Long Beach, CA to workshop with the City Hall government employees. Working with them to understand their internal process, the different in-person interactions between departments, challenges, strengths, and what they wanted the ability to accomplish in our software, we better understood what was needed from our solution.
We also had the opportunity to interview citizens and government employees who experienced the existing, manual, in-person process. We closed the trip by user testing contractors with a prototype with task-based prompts, the feedback on the experience they could potentially be using one day was vital for platform updates and development of new features.
Once back at headquarters we created materials to document and help us synthesize all the findings from our research trip. Below is an example of a user type and what we know about them, which informed decisions we made when designing the solution:
UI Kit / Style-guide
Besides developing the platform's experience and interactions, we were also tasked with creating and maintaining an AA-compliant user interface kit. The team and I conducted a wealth of research to ensure the UI kit met accessibility guidelines to meet all the legal standards for the public sector.
Solution
Rhythm for Civics is in General Availability and is currently under contract with municipalities, states, and other public agencies in all levels of government. Below are some final designs showcasing what new users will be seeing once the product is activated.
