I had the opportunity to participate in a case with CSN (Centrala studiestödsnämnden) to re-design, both visually and user-wise, their application form.
For this case, me, the one who was in charge of the UX design, and three others developed a high fidelity, clickable, wireframe prototype for web in the software Axure and Adobe XD for users to try in comparison the the current application form.
CSN have previously gotten a lot of feedback from their users complaining that the application form for the study allowance was way too confusing, outdated and difficult to grasp, especially if they're not a Swedish citizen.
The problem:
The current layout of the application form at csn.se did not provide the guidance required for the students who wanted to apply for study allowance. With this process already being a big step for students, the information provided in the form still left the users being confused and unsure on what they've actually done after completing it.
The process:
By analysing the current structure of the form together with the feedback CSN had gotten from users, we quickly discovered that the structure and the "red thread" did not follow what the users thought was gonna happen next, their mental models were not aligned with the process of the application. So by conducting a user study on 7 different users, both Swedish and non-Swedish citizens, we analysed and adhered to the responses and created a prototype based on the customer journey.
Throughout the process, the main factor we adhered to was the fact that the user must have full control and must actually understand what is happening all the time. Since the application form requires the user to fill in vital information for the application to be accepted, we always made sure that each page contained enough information for the user to make use of when executing each step.
This, together with updated visuals, resulted in a more informative version of the previous layout. By diminishing the amount of possible errors that may occur in a process, better outcomes may result and the user will feel more safe and confident after completing this task.
