Village of Glencoe
Sample Project: Creating an online portal for businesses
THE PROBLEM
As far as I can tell, businesses can't submit or renew forms online to the Village of Glencoe. I wanted to create an online portal so that businesses would have an easier time submitting and renewing forms rather than physically dropping off a document at the clerk's office.
I designed an online portal for businesses to submit and renew forms. I overheard the owner of Frank & Betsie's talk about how he needed to submit a new form called "Places For Eating Tax" to the Village of Glencoe. I came up with this portal idea so that this process would be easier and less of hassle for businesses in Glencoe, IL.
MAKE OF THE TEAM
Me
KEY GOAL
Design an online portal for businesses to submit and renew forms for the Village of Glencoe.
MY ROLE
UX/UI Designer
UNDERSTANDING THE USER
I asked the owner of Frank & Betsie's a couple of questions to better understand the form process that he goes through. I wanted to better understand his point of view and see if there were any pain points that I could solve with my design.
The user in this scenario are businesses, and luckily I had a business owner at my disposal. I asked a couple of questions so I could empathize more with his situation.
Question 1: How do you feel when you have to apply or renew a form for the Village of Glencoe?
Answer: Feels like a chore and I don't like to do it.
Question 2: How do you keep track of the forms that need to be renewed?
Answer: I write down the due date on my calendar.
Question 3-1: Have you ever forgotten to renew a form?
Answer: Yes.
Question 3-2: How did that make you feel?
Answer: I was very stressed out and I don't like to forget things.
Question 4: How long does it take you to fill out and submit a form?
Answer: About 15-20 minutes to fill out, and then I deliver the form to the village the next day.
From these answers, I decided that the portal should have a way to view whether or not a form needs to be renewed. Having an email sent out to the user a week and a day before the form is about to expire would help the user be less stressed. By completing the form through the portal, submitting these documents would be a lot faster so I would have to design an upload button as well. These answers helped me gain insight into what I should put into my design.
TITLE OF THE CALLOUT BLOCK
THE SOLUTION
I designed an online portal for businesses to submit and renew forms. I overheard the owner of Frank & Betsie's Glencoe Bistro talk about how he needed to submit a new form called "Places For Eating Tax" to the Village of Glencoe. I came up with this portal idea so that this process would be easier and less of hassle for businesses in Glencoe, IL.
BREAKING DOWN THE PROCESS
After my User Research, I began to think about the wireframe and how I wanted the user to fill out a form within the portal.
At first, I wanted to make the portal like a wizard so that a user would enjoy filling out a form. After browsing through their website, I discovered that the Village of Glencoe already has their forms in a PDF format, and to create a wizard didn't seem like a smart idea anymore because this would change the way an employee creates the form. I wanted to make things easier, not more difficult so I threw out the wizard idea, and went for a more simple portal approach.
Once I was satisfied with my new wireframe, I began designing. Using the Village of Glencoe's logo, colors and typography I created my design which lead to a desktop and mobile prototype. I used a Figma to HTML plugin (converts HTML pages to Figma layers) to show where I would put the link for the business portal.
THESE WERE SOME MAJOR LEARNINGS OR POINTS I WANTED TO CALL OUT
Rejection can lead to inspiration
If I hadn't applied to the gaming license company and been rejected, I would never have come up with this sample project. I learned that it's important to see every situation in a bright light, and that inspiration can come from surprising places. Failure can lead to positive outcomes.
Change course when needed
I learned to be more flexible with this project. I was disappointed at first to scrap the wizard idea, but looking back I'm glad I did because the idea wasn't going to work. I think it's important to be able to change direction and adapt to a new approach in order to create a product users will enjoy and use.