Case Management System for Consumer Complaints

Analyzed the user experience of an enterprise solution to unveil existing gaps within the technology and service by conducting thorough internal and external user research.

CLIENT

Consumer Protection Ontario

ROLE

UX Designer

UX Researcher

RESPONSIBILITIES

Affinity Mapping

Service Design Blueprint

Process Maps

Project Brief

Our task was to evaluate the current case management system used by the Consumer Protection Ontario team by conducting user research internally and externally (with end-users) to determine existing gaps within the technology and service.

Problem Statement

How might we seek to understand and bridge the disconnect between our internal and external users to better understand their pain points and user needs to inform a CPO product roadmap and future technology options. 

Research objectives

Internal research objectives

To understand the context, behaviours and needs of internal users & validate the previous research

To develop a clear understanding of the relationship between the internal CPO stakeholders and the business & consumers that engage with them.

To establish a path forward for what the CPO needs from a user experience standpoint to enable future success.

External research objectives

To understand the context, behaviours and needs of external users

What are user’s interactions with the CPO and the websites?

What are businesses' interactions with the CPO and the websites when handling cases?

What are external users’ information-seeking behaviour, and how do they navigate the current system?

Internal Research Users

  1. Marketplace Intelligence and Consumer Services Unit

  2. licensing Unit

  3. Inspections Unit

  4. Investigations Unit

  5. Burials Unit

External Research Users

7 Businesses (6 regulated, 1 unregulates)

5 Consumers

Users

Research Recruitment

276 screener respondents

➡ Participants were recruited based on the following criteria: 

1️⃣ Varying levels of familiarity and experience with the CPO 

    • Types of Businesses 

      • (unregulated, regulated) 

      • Industry (Collection agencies, fencing, etc.)

2️⃣Diversity: age, location, proficiency with technology

Research Methodology

🧐 Research Sessions

Internal research

1️⃣ We prepared discussion guides for all 5 Units by brainstorming questions as a team.

2️⃣ Upon finalizing the questions for the discussion guides, we prepared note-taking guides in Miro and ran workshop sessions with the 5 Units.

External research

  • 45-minute, 1-on-1 user interview sessions 

    • Opening & closing questions to understand participant’s experience and past experience with the CPO

imitations and considerations 

  • We aimed for diversity of types of businesses, but we have only one unregulated business represented in our research. So, it’s possible that the pain points listed don’t reflect the pain points of unregulated businesses.

📝 Research Synthesis

Feedback consolidated & scored as:

Key Issues:

  • Critical: Interruptions towards user experience; user is at risk of not completing the task(s).

  • Moderate: Pain points or confusions. Interruptive to user experience; task can be completed but needs more cognitive load.

  • Neutral: General notes/comments

  • Suggestions/Questions: Can be further explored & considered for future iterations

  • Positive: Elements appreciated and desired by the user; to keep or further explore

1️⃣ Complaint management flow

2️⃣ Licensing flow

3️⃣ Burials flow

We then consolidated the data into different flows

Deliverables

Service Design Blueprint

Process Maps

Research Findings

Users find it difficult to track the progress of cases and follow-up on staff.

The research findings were broken down into:

1️⃣ Current pain points within the various systems and units

2️⃣ User needs and feature requests

3️⃣ UI requests

Key Findings

Need to be able to export documents seamlessly.

Need separation of workflows to track what happens to a case as it moves through the various units.

Would like to have only one system to maintain .