GetACP

GetACP is a web app that helps users easily apply for the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP), a federal broadband benefit program. It is intuitive, WCAG-compliant, and accessible to users across different levels of digital literacy.

In 2023, I joined EducationSuperHighway as the Lead UX/UI Designer at a national nonprofit backed by the Gates Foundation, focused on bridging the digital divide for 17 million unconnected households. I led the design of GetACP under a tight timeline, ensuring it was both user-friendly and accessible.

Team

Product Manager

Lisette Lopez


Researcher

Tania Quintana

Designer

Shan Ou


Data Analyst

Micheal Hamburger

Engineering

Lucy Chen

Alan Ray

Richard Hanberry

Andres Felipe Gonzalez

Justine Schott

Jen Lipton

Zackary Patterson

Katharine Brydges


My Role

  • Led the end-to-end design over six months.

  • Designed features like benefit eligibility checks, information collection, document upload, application review, outcome, and status tracking.

  • Co-ran focus groups, interviews, surveys, and ranking tests.

  • Ensured the product meets WCAG criteria.

  • Established a design review process and design system.

  • Created wireframes, prototypes, user flows, and journey maps.

Impacts

Design Sprints

The Design Sprint meeting includes engineers, marketing, leadership, the adoption team, design, researchers, and the product manager for brainstorming, knowledge sharing, and dot voting.

Brain Storming

Dot Votting

Quickly Sketching

Other Benefits’ Receiver

Target Users

Tribal

Low Income

Lunch Benefit Dependent

Discovery

Expert Panels Interview

Our adoption team has extensive experience with benefit applications, including application requirements and benefit differences. By conducting expert panel interviews, I gained valuable insights into application challenges and users' needs.

User Interviews

We learned that limited digital literacy among our target users hinders their ability to protect online information, leading to concerns about trusting non-government websites. Research participants include veterans, disabilities, parents, tribal members, and seniors.

Pain Points

"The application takes too long.”

“I don’t trust non-government sites.”

Solution to

Lengthy Application

Streamline User Flows

We streamlined the process by removing the account creation step, consolidating information, and introducing interactive navigation.

Progressive Exposure

By identifying content relevant to different personas, we displayed information based on their selections rather than showing the same content to all users.

Result

The application time has been reduced from 21 minutes to 5 minutes.

Progressive Exposure

Account-Free Process

Curated Flow Charts

For each user group to streamline the process.

Solution to

Trust Concerns

Landing Page

Part of the solution is to build trust from the landing page, where first impressions affect users' overall perception, a cognitive bias known as the “Halo Effect.

SSN Page

A 12% drop-off on the SSN page was identified as related to trust concerns during user testing. We iterated through different layouts and copy to find the most trustworthy design for our users.

Result

The landing page's conversion rate is 7%, compared to the industry average of 2%-5%. The drop-off rate on the SSN page is reduced from 12% to 1%.

Delightful Experience

In addition to solving pain points, I also focus on delivering a delightful user experience through emotional design and interaction design.

Intuitive Navigation

A scrollable, interactive navigation bar with distinct states allows users to preview steps, navigate back and forth, and modify inputs.

Microanimation

Use microanimations to celebrate successes, and maintain engagement during API calls. These lightweight, JSON-based animations has minimal impact on load times.

Dynamic Input Selector

It keeps users engaged by presenting curated content based on their selections, minimizing friction and cognitive noise.

Accordion

Our user testing discovered that users like to skip heavy text, so I hid the content in accordions with clear titles for easy browsing.

Challenge - Design System

There are three problems with our existing style guide: (1) it is not systematic, (2) it does not meet WCAG compliance, and (3) it is not user-friendly.

As the design lead, I created a new design system and worked with engineers on its implementation. It has been a challenge to make it both accessible and visually appealing. By collaborating with the accessibility lead and the audit team, I was able to develop a design system that balances the two. Our users prefer the new style over the old one.

Existing Style - B2B

New Design System

New Style - B2C

Reflections

We're grateful to have launched the MVP in October 2023, reaching over 12K users in our pilot cities—Birmingham, Charlotte, and Philadelphia—in just three months. If I had the chance to take this project to the next level, here’s what I would have done differently:

Test with users who use assistive tools

Polish the design to be more user-friendly

Track scrolling on the landing page

Track NPS scores with HubSpot after launch