Social Security Administration (SSA) Eligibility Tool

Role: Product Design Lead, Research Lead, Stakeholder collaboration

Challenge:

Through discussions with people who have applied for SSA benefits programs, we identified that many have difficulty understanding when they should submit applications. The existing information on the website was dense, difficult to understand, and applicants were not confident in their understanding or if it was relevant to their situation.

Many research participants communicated that they spent a lot of time traveling to local offices and researching before beginning the application process. SSA stakeholders identified an opportunity because benefits are dated to when the application is first submitted, so if an eligible application delays submitting their application they are losing out on potential benefits payments.

Goals:

We set out to increase confidence of visitors to the site and reduce burden on SSA staff.

• Reduce reliance on SSA technicians by offering plain language, accessible answers to common questions

• Help users determine whether to spend time on an application

• Provide one entry point on the SSA website to check eligibility for all benefits

• Guide users to the next step

Process:

Subject Matter Expertise

We worked very closely with subject matter experts to understand what information is needed to guide users to an application or identify if they are not eligible. Through many, many iterations to a workflow, we designed a simple, conversational flow to guide users through. While we covered many scenarios, most users will answer about 10-12 questions and can complete it in just a few minutes.

Research with users

Once we had narrowed in on the concept for this work, we wanted to talk to potential users as soon as possible to see if it would work for them. We did usability testing on a rough prototype seeking to learn:

1. Are participants able to easily find the eligibility tool and move through the questions presented to them?

2. Did participants understand the language we use, format, and results?

3. Are the next steps clear or actionable?

4. Did they trust it?

As we iterated on the prototype, we kept in mind we wanted to build a scalable, reusable tool that could work in other places on the Social Security site or other government sites. So we designed and built for a series of templates and components that could be reused in other question and answer flows and leveraged US Web Design System (USWDS).

Then, we repeated the process of coordinating with our subject matter experts to confirm accuracy or clarify information raised in research, then brought it back to users for more feedback. We worked to reach users who represented diverse backgrounds, ages, regions of the country, accessibility needs, and familiarity with technology.