Our Marriage Journey

Our Marriage Journey

JAN 2020 - NOV 2021

Location

Singapore & China

Domain

Government

Platform

Responsive web

Service

Product design and agile delivery.

The client are the Registry of Marriage Singapore and Registry of Muslim Marriage Singapore with both striving to deliver citizen-centric, quality, and efficient service to meet the needs of citizens.

They are looking for a partner to create a holistic solution to enable the efficient end- to-end processing and management of their marriage applications, registrations, and marriage records database to enable search and extraction services with a better user experience.

To comply with my non-disclosure agreement, I have omitted and obfuscated confidential information in this case study. All information in this case study is my own and does not necessarily reflect the views of the client.

Scope and mission

  1. Design a new public-facing responsive website to combine those two 20+ years old websites with a new look and feel, better navigation, better user experience, and digitalize the offline booking services.

  2. Re-design the legacy internal system with better user experience and operating efficiency.

  3. Design a brand new portal for their solemnizers to support the solemnizer booking and to provide a better way to book.

  4. Ensure the service will work seamlessly between the new and old system after phase 1 is released since the first release will only cover half of the original service.

Contribution

Before delivery phase

  • Facilitated several workshops with another lead designer to get the client's visions and understand their requirements.

  • Partnered with a lead designer and a project manager to conduct user interview, online survey and data analyzing to uncover user pain points, persona and user journey.

  • Partnered with a lead designer to come up with some solutions based on the research results and translate them into features.

  • User testing and assumption validating before the delivery phases, to ensure the solution really works.

  • Created wireframe and prototypes to share the vision, design principles and look and feel to align with clients before we start to get into agile delivery.

During delivery phase

  • In charge of interaction design, experience design, user interface design to prepare mockup for developers to code, and supporting if they are not clear with design or requirements.

  • Collect business requirement form clients during the regular meeting and analyze with a business analyzer to translate them into stories for developers.

  • Keep doing usability testing during the delivery phases and monitoring user feedbacks and then make the corresponding enhancement in the later iteration.

Challenge

Strategy

Look and feel

  • Brand archetypes workshop

    We print out the introduction of all of the brand personality and ask all the stakeholders, which one is closer to their agency.

    In the end we found that most of them select "care giver" and they want to provide the warm feeling to the citizen.

  • Public voting

    Based on the results from the brand personality workshop, we created 3 differnet styles of design then paste them on the wall in their building for public to vote.

  • Align with clients

    After a month, we share the results of voting for the clients and provide them suggestions to decide which style to go with.

Information architecture

  • Card sorting worshop

    Printed out all the page titles from both 2 old websites and shuffle them, then ask users to recategorize them.

  • Prototype

    We made the wireframe and prototype for new information architecture, based on the card sorting results.

  • User testing

    We asked users to find certain information in the new information architecture. In the meantime, we observe and record their reaction.

    After they finished, we asked if they found any difficulty or confusion, or why they have a certain reaction when they are doing a certain task.

Online marriage registration

(OMJ website)

Discovery

  • Call center interview

    Interview the officers who are in charge of the call center and a public inquiry to understand what are the most frequently asked questions and complaints from the public. After the interview, we asked for the FAQ list then group the question type.

  • Analyze AS-IS user journey

    Mapping out the user journey with our product owners to help us understand how to get married in Singapore for different types of users and potential pain points.

  • User interview

    Interviewing different types of public members for the as-is website and their experience of processing the marriage process in Singapore.

Marriage registration process

Insight

  • What's next

    Different type of users has different process to get married in Singapore. Users are not clear about what they have to do next based on their type.

  • Confusing questions

    The fields and questions in the online marriage application are not easy to understand, some of the questions are only for certain types of couples.

  • Unorganized information

    The website is text-heavy and the information is scattered. Users are not easy to find the information they need. Once they can't find the info they will call to call center for help.

  • Lost the timeline

    The current registering process is long and scattered in different channels. It's easy to lose the timeline and there is no place to track the registering status.

  • Reschedule appointment

    Currently, the officer will assign an appointment with couples after the application is submitted. It takes a lot of time for couples to reschedule if the time doesn't work for them.

Approach

  • Regroup all the user types

    Currently, the registering process for each user type is different, we mapped out all of them and find out the similarity, then regroup the type based on the similarity.

  • Only keep necessary information

    The process of registering the marriage is already complicated, it's important to help users not to be distracted by the information not related to them.

    We did another interview with citizens, in order to finish those tasks during the registration, what information do they need?

  • One channel

    If couples only stay in one channel, It will avoid them getting lost while switching channels, but also easier to track status for all tasks.

Solution

  • Steppers

    By re-organizing the content into steppers, users are clearly what they have to do in each step and what's next.

  • Tasks

    Divide the big application into several tasks, when user starts it, the screen will show a dashboard to tell users how many tasks do they need to finish and they don't have to finish in one time.

  • Notification

    After the user finished the tasks, the user not only can receive the email notification but also can log in to the dashboard to track their application and booking process.

  • Grouping information

    Grouping information based on user type, so that user can focus the information they need to know easily.

  • Channel user from the beginning

    Channel all the users from the beginning by eligibility check and profile, users only need to focus on the tasks and information that are related to them.

  • Appointment booking

    The system will manage the available appointment time slot for couple to book and reschedule.

Online Solemnizer booking

(OMJ website & Solemnizer portal)

Solemnizer

Solemnizer is a very unique role of the marriage process in Singapore, and by law, it is required to have a solemnizer in the wedding. They could be a grassroots leader, religious leader (eg. priest, abbot ), or member of a government-related agency. They normally have a full-time job, so they can only use their leisure time to solemnize marriage for couples voluntarily.

They will officiate the ceremony and verify all legal documents, ensure that both parties consent to the marriage, and facilitate the signing of the Marriage Certificate during the wedding.

Furthermore, for Muslim marriage the solemnizer (Kadi) even has to conduct any interviews with the couple before they registered marriages, to ensure there is no concern for both parties to get married and provide necessary support if needed.

Thus, people have to contact and book them several months before the wedding date.

Discovery

  • Online solemniser survey

    We work with our clients to prepare the question and ask them to send out the survey to all solemnizers.

    The questions are mainly focused on their profile, acceptance for digital products, how to manage their time, and desired features.

  • User interview with solemnizer

    We interviewed solemnizers to understand how do they normally get the request from the couple and how do they conduct the solemnization.

  • User interview with couple

    We interviewed user who has married in Singapore about their experience of booking a solemnizer and what's information of solemnizer they will pay attention to when they book.

Insight

From couple

  • If the couple needs to change the wedding date accidentally, and the solemnizer can not make it for the new date, it will take a lot of time to find a new solemnizer.

  • The current website just provides a list of solemnizers with limited information, users normally don't know whom to choose.

  • Even though users don't know whom to choose. Most of them still wonder if the solemnizer believes in a certain religion or can speak a certain language.

  • For some cultures, the wedding date has to be on a particular date, currently, the couple can only contact several solemnizers if they can make it on that day.

  • Many solemnizer profiles in the list are not up-to- date, especially contact numbers and email, which cause trouble when couples try to contact them.

From solemnizer

  • Currently, solemnizers have to manage their appointment with couples on their physical booklet or calendar on the phone.

  • Many couples will just send massive SMS to a series of solemnizers on the list, whoever replied first will get the booking, in a way, there’s no respect to solemnizers.

  • There are 66% solemnizers are 55-75 years old, it will take more time for them to pick up new technology.

  • There is no way for the solemnizer to track if the couple is proceeding as planned or not, as well as for the couple, they want to know if the solemnizer has responded or not.

  • Couples are not clear about the marriage process, many of them will ask solemnizer what they have to do and what to prepare. However, the answer to those questions is already on the website.

Couple type

  • I have a solemnizer in mind

    Couples already knew someone on the solemnizer list, for example, the pastor who works in the church that the couple normally goes to.

  • Select a solemnizer for me

    Couples don’t know whom to choose, but they wish the solemnizer could be under certain criteria.

Solemnizer persona

Kung-Yong Tan (63)

Kung-Yong works as a professor in a university during the weekday and solemnize wedding during the weekend. His ambition is helping Singaporean to built a happy family.

Goal

  1. Avoid any chance which might makes couples upset during the process.

  2. Help couples preparing to form a nuclear family.

Frustrations

  1. Sometimes I replied SMS from couples bookin request, they told me they already found others.

  2. If there are any changes in couple’s solemnization details, I can’t be notified in time.

  3. I only know limited information of the couple before their solemnisation.

Kunya Ahmed (37)

Kunya works as a Kadi in a mosque and solemnizing wedding is also part of his job. His ambition is contributing back to the community to give guidance to the new couples to strengthen their marriage.

Goal

  1. Not only just offer services to couples but also keep improving it.

  2. Help couples preparing their marriage better.

Frustrations

  1. In order to improve my services, I want to get more feedbacks from couples.

  2. I cant receive the latest information, when couples did some changes.

  3. I only know limited information of the couple before their solemnisation.

Approach

  • Invite and respond

    By sending an invite to the solemnizer, the couple are not the only party that can choose, it also provides the solemnizer a chance to decide if they want to accept or not.

  • Recommend a solemniser

    The system recommends a solemniser for the couple who don't have a solemniser in mind based on their religion and language preference.

Solution

  • One invite at one time

    Couples can only book one solemnizer at one time, and solemnizers have a right to accept or reject. The couple can not book another one until the original solemnizer responds.

  • Synchronized profile

    Solemniser can update their profile on their portal and the information will be synchronized to the OMJ website for couples to view.

  • Email notificaiton

    The system will send emails to notify both solemnizer and couple when either party has updated their progress of the booking, as well as another email to remind them a few days before the appointment.

  • Two booking methods

    Provide a solution for both couples who have a solemnizer in mind or have no idea how to pick a solemnizer. Users can select based on their needs.

  • Auto assiagn with criteria

    We asked the user to select the criteria first then let the system auto-assign a solemnizer based on the criteria. In order to avoid making some solemnizers overloaded, the system will assign the solemnizer who has the least booking in the month first.

Enhance user experience

(Internal system - Unicorn)

Discovery

  • Observation

    The client invited us to go to their office and observe how they work on their daily basis and their operating behaviors.

  • Interview different roles

    By interviewing different roles of officers, we can learn what they care about, what is their duty, how they use the current system, and how do they think about the current process.

  • Card sorting

    We did a card sorting workshop with different roles of officers and ask them to group for the features based on their needs.

Insight

  • Features not been used

    There are several features in the system that have not been used for a long time because of some historical reason, some staff don't even know what are those functions for.

  • Confusing navigation

    The information architecture is quite messy, only officers who used certain feature frequently can find it easily and some of them have multiple entrances which has not been used.

  • Irrelevant features

    Low authority users will see a lot of functions that they don't have access to use or only use a few times a year. It takes a lot of time for them to find certain features they need to use on a daily basis.

  • Huge form

    There are a lot of big forms in the system, it's hard to read it and many fields are not related to the particular case.

  • Need to display task priority

    Since there are many applications that have expired dates, and normally the officer will set cases that are close to it as the first priority. Currently, in the system, users can not tell what are urgent cases.

  • Change history and approval

    The senior management wants to know what their employee has changed for the heavy actions, and also for some actions need to get approval from them.

Approach

  • Highlight

    1. Highlight the urgent cases, so that the user can understand the priority of their works.

    2. Each role has a different business they need to focus on, by highlighting features they usually need, it can improve their work efficiency.

  • You can only see what you need

    Only display to users what they have to focus on and it also reduces the confusion and distraction simultaneously.

Solution

  • Dashboard

    There are 2 sections in the dashboard. One is the most urgent case and the other one is about functions for the certain role they will use on daily basis.

  • Notification

    For the urgent tasks, we will not only highlight them in the dashboard but also send out the email notification to the officer.

  • Access control

    Each role can only see and use functions they have been configured so that they can locate what they have to focus on easily.

  • New information architecture

    We regroup all the features based on the result from the card sorting workshop and also only keep the necessary entrance for each of them.

  • Tabs

    We divided the form into several tabs, users can pay attention to the information they need to operate in the certain tab.

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