Redesigning the unemployment benefits experience through a human-centered lens
Service Design | UX Research
OVERVIEW
In collaboration with Deloitte, we reimagined the unemployment service system in the state of Georgia, identifying systemic breakdowns and designing a seamless, empathetic, and proactive solution that supports citizens during job loss—a critical life event.
GOAL
To build trust between citizens and the government by creating a future-facing, accessible, and dignified unemployment benefits experience, using service design and systems thinking. To analyze how and why life event based interactions with governmental entities can be so painful, and ideating a better future in which interacting with the government leaves you feeling taken loving care of, ultimately developing trust in the government.
OUTCOME
A conceptual “No-Stop Shop” system powered by AI and a proactive buffer model, integrating government services and resources into a seamless support system that activates immediately upon job loss with a single point of access, eliminating multiple interactions with various departments and agencies.
USERS
Unemployed citizens in Georgia. foreign workers and self-employed individuals, families affected by job loss, government workers processing unemployment claims.
ROLE
Service Designer and UX Researcher
PROCESS BOOK
TIMELINE
10 weeks | Jan 2023 - Mar 2023
TOOLS
Adobe Illustrator
Figma
Miro
Adobe InDesign
Midjourney
TEAM
15 members
7 countries
5 majors
Ascanio Colonna Di Paliano - Professor
Challenge
Navigating unemployment services is confusing, emotionally draining, and inefficient. Citizens often feel judged, unsupported, and overwhelmed by disconnected systems & unclear processes.
Research objectives
Understand the citizen experience of unemployment
Investigate how individuals navigate the unemployment benefits system—what services they use, challenges they face, and how job loss affects their emotional, financial, and psychological well-being.
01
Identify systemic gaps and trust barriers in government service delivery
Explore where the current unemployment system fails in terms of accessibility, communication, personalization, and responsiveness, and how these breakdowns influence citizens’ trust in the government.
02
Evaluate the role of digital platforms and benchmark global best practices
Assess the effectiveness of existing digital tools used to access unemployment services and analyze how other governments deliver streamlined, human-centered support during life events to inform future-forward design.
03
Process and Timeline
Context and Exploration
Looking at the BIG picture
Market Landscape of Digital Government Services
Global Trends in Digital Government
Countries like Estonia, Singapore, and the UK have pioneered citizen-centric digital services, offering unified access to government benefits, tax filings, healthcare, and employment. These systems focus on:
- Proactive support (Eg. Estonia’s X-Road platform)
- Single digital identity for all services
- High trust and transparency through clear data usage policies.
While global exemplars prove that fully digital public services are possible, the U.S. has a unique opportunity to embed Human-Centered Design (HCD) at scale—bridging gaps in trust, efficiency, and accessibility through inclusive service innovation.
How does the US government offer individuals support through its agencies and/or private organizations?
Deloitte’s prior government service work
Both Deloitte and the government are increasingly focused on future-ready, human-centered digital services. As Human-Centered Design (HCD) becomes more common in everyday products and services, citizens now expect the same ease and empathy from government systems. This shift in expectations means that governments must design both digital and physical ("phygital") services that are seamless, accessible, and trustworthy—otherwise, trust erodes.
Understanding the Problem
Secondary Research | USA Country level
Demographics of those most affected by unemployment
Current State:
Unemployment benefits process
Claiming unemployment benefits in the US can be a tedious and time-consuming process. Before receiving aid, claimants must learn about the qualification criteria and provide various documents to prove eligibility. The information exchanged throughout is done mainly through traditional means, such as mail and in-person, which can be inefficient and inconvenient.
Process map of UNEMPLOYMENT benefit system
Current State:
Losing job-based health insurance
Process map of HEALTHCARE benefit systems
Extreme case persona
Using the Six Hats framework
During our first round of ideation, we built the ideal journey for extreme cases. We elaborated on their possible personal and professional needs and each case’s particular struggles with a focus on their psychological and emotional journey. To do this, we looked at the journey and needs of single parents, foreign workers on a work visa, older citizens, and citizens with disabilities. We examined the most pressing requirements to determine the needs that must be met to make the final service complete, effective, and efficient.
Ideation
Single parent user journey
Key Findings
In all cases, there is a need for:
1. A comprehensive approach that addresses various aspects of the individual’s life, as many are affected by job instability.
2. Engaging the community to ensure the services are accessible despite language or physical barriers.
3. Simplification and assistance to navigate complex systems.
4. A time-keeping system to reduce uncertainty and keep services accountable.
5. Counseling and psychological support.
6. Assistance in financial planning to help manage resources and budgets.
7. Business advising services can help citizens with steps of job search.
Framing the System
Demographics of Georgia
Richest vs Poorest Counties
Key Findings
1. Tech firms and big businesses are located in wealthy counties close to Atlanta.
2. Counties with high unemployment rely on mills and most blue-collar jobs.
3. One of the most severely impacted industry is textile/fabric mills.
Narrowing the Scope | State of Georgia (USA)
Role of Trust and Value in government services
We directed attention to specific research areas":
- Trust between the citizens and the govt
- Value for stakeholders
Stakeholder Mapping
The stakeholder map helped in understanding the relationships between the different entities involved. It also demonstrated the prioritization of various stakeholders in the ecosystem.
Primary Research | State of Georgia (USA)
Career center visit
Value Exchange Map
Non-participatory observation
Key finding: Direct access points are key in creating this trust.
We built a value exchange map as a conceptual tool which helped us reflect and solidify the patterns and significant “trust spots” that we discovered. This value exchange map also became a visual tool to show and see connections within the context of unemployment.
Primary Research
In-depth Interviews
We conducted our interviews online and selected interviewees with varying backgrounds and experiences to gather diverse perspectives.
Gathering the Stories | State of Georgia (USA)
Surveys
The goal was to get more insight into unemployment in Georgia and to inform and improve on the shortcomings and working services currently provided by the state. This survey was vital to understanding the current services and their accessibility.
200+ participants | Age group 17 to 71 y/o
How did they go about looking for a job?
Key Findings:
The majority of citizens still use traditional methods regardless of their educational background.
Along with online options, citizens use unorthodox methods such as word of mouth through friends and past colleagues.
What was their experience like being unemployed?
Key Findings:
34% of citizens had a negative experience.
49% had a neutral feeling.
17% had a positive interaction that resulted in them finding work.
Did unemployment impact their mental health?
Key Findings:
Health issues amongst citizens were directly related to uncertainty and inefficiency of unemployment services.
Having a solid family support was the differentiating factor amongst who successfully got employed again and those who gave up.
What they had to say..
"“I haven’t been unemployed but my wife was and it was terrible. The unemployment system in Georgia intentionally makes it difficult to access the unemployment insurance money taken from each paycheck.”
“I was frustrated, because I had to look for other jobs and not many places want to hire someone that is 70 years old, no matter what degrees or experience you have. Why don’t employers want to hire older people. Social security just does not make it any more.”
“It was awful. I have not been unemployed in over 30 years and I had a difficult time getting the little bit of unemployment I did receive. I was made to feel like a second class human being. I will NEVER apply for unemployment again.”
Affinity Mapping
The data points we gathered helped us generate ideas and group information according to rising patterns. We distilled into nine overarching themes and nine key insights. Then, we narrowed our nine primary insights to three to investigate them further
Data Analysis and Synthesis
Empathy Mapping
We looked at video testimonials where citizens shared their experiences when facing job loss and how this affected their lives.
The empathy map then laid the foundation for ideation and envisioning a service for the future.
We created a map for an extreme case individual with the information we gathered—a citizen who had worked for more than fifteen years and remained unemployed after losing his job for more than six months.
This activity allowed us to better understand the challenges that unemployed individuals face and to begin developing ideas that consider these experiences.
Archetypes
On one end, we have those who feel they cannot reach out for help. On the other hand, we have those who feel far too comfortable with receiving government assistance.
We narrowed down four archetypes to further develop. These archetypes represent the range of uncertainty and confidence on the unemployment spectrum.
How Might We
Three “How Might We” statements were developed based on the information we gathered from affinitizing our data points. These assertions allowed us to recast our observations into areas of opportunity and innovate on problems identified through user research.
Create a clear and informative system to help alleviate strain on the system and people?
01
Provide a more personalized support system during the transitional phases?
02
Balance government transparency and security to provide more trust between the government and the general public?
03
Unemployed citizens in Georgia struggle to access support due to a confusing, disconnected, and emotionally draining system. With unclear processes, limited personalization, and low trust in government services, many feel overwhelmed, especially those in vulnerable situations.
Problem Statement
Designing the Future
Ideating potential Service Solutions
JOHN WITH THE BEARD
We took a boundless approach to what an ideal future would look like. We focused on empathising with the user and connecting government services with agencies/NGOs to craft a streamlined experience for them.
Storyboarding
Introducing The Buffer
A proactive government support system called The Buffer that activates automatically after job loss and connects citizens to personalized unemployment services through a unified digital and physical platform.
Navigating unemployment today is confusing, emotionally exhausting, and often inaccessible, especially for vulnerable groups. People feel unsupported and overwhelmed by disconnected services, long delays, and unclear processes.
By integrating unemployment services (benefits, healthcare, childcare, upskilling, job matching) into a single, AI-guided system linked to a citizen’s digital ID. The Buffer automates eligibility checks, personalizes service delivery, and ensures timely support through both digital tools and human assistance.
What?
Why?
How?
System Structure
By walking through John’s experience, we found key moments where government services could be more helpful or engaging. This helped us come up with 20 creative ideas to improve the system and make citizens feel more supported and connected to their government.
Service Statement
Our government-activated support service, The Buffer, helps unemployed citizens who want to access unemployment insurance, healthcare options, childcare support, training programs, and job listings by centralizing these services into a single digital and physical ecosystem integrated with their digital ID and enable to be notified, onboarded, and matched with relevant services without needing to initiate contact through an AI assistant that guides them throughout, along with human mentors available for complex cases.
Prototyping
How does the Buffer work?
To gain a comprehensive understanding of the various interactions citizens have with the government, we created a customer journey map that combined and overlapped the journeys of our archetypes. By doing so, we identified commonalities and differences in their experiences and gaps in the government’s services and interactions with citizens.
Pro-active government
One-stop shop to No-stop shop
Imagine a future government system that is fully digital, smart, and effortless for citizens. Instead of people filling out forms or contacting different departments, the system would automatically know when someone needs help (like after losing a job) and offer the right support using AI and shared data.
It’s called a “no-stop shop” because people wouldn’t have to take any steps themselves—the system would do it all. While this makes things easier, it also raises concerns about data privacy and how to keep things secure and simple.
Deliver
Citizen-centric online predictive service model
Single point of access
Seamless data storage across govt. agencies through a single national data repository
Offerings
Multi-service center
Digital ID
Personalized skills and courses
Skill-based recommendations on job postings
AI assistant
Mentorship program
Solution Impact
Benefits
Frictionless and proactive access to support
Citizens are automatically enrolled into relevant services—like unemployment insurance, healthcare, and training, without having to initiate contact or navigate complex systems.
Human-centered and personalized experience
Services are tailored to individual needs through digital IDs and AI guidance, reducing confusion, stress, and emotional burden, while restoring dignity during difficult transitions.
Strengthened trust in government services
By simplifying communication, reducing delays, and creating reliable touchpoints, the system rebuilds confidence in public institutions, especially among the underserved & vulnerable.
Expected Impact
Upon implementation of The Buffer, we expect measurable impact, such as reduced time to access benefits, fewer service drop-offs, higher engagement in upskilling, and improved trust in government. These can be tracked through platform data, enrollment rates, and qualitative user feedback.
Areas of impact
Measure of impact
Time to access benefits
Reduction in time from layoff to benefit disbursement
User satisfaction
Qualitative feedback from surveys and usability testing
Reduction in drop-offs
% decrease in incomplete applications or service abandonment
Uptake in upskilling programs
Increase in enrollment and completion of educational modules
Trust in government services
Improved perception via qualitative studies
Cost of co-ordination
Reduction in backend redundancies (qualitative or time-tracking based)
Lessons Learned
Designing for the most vulnerable users leads to better solutions for everyone: By starting with edge cases like single parents, foreign workers, and the self-employed, we uncovered gaps that a generic design wouldn’t have addressed. This approach helped us build a system that’s more inclusive and resilient.
Integration matters more than surface-level improvements: The real issue wasn’t individual services, it was how disconnected everything was. Thinking in systems allowed us to design a cohesive experience that could actually reduce effort and confusion for users.
Technology needs to work alongside human support: Even with AI and automation, people still need empathy, clarity, and reassurance, especially during moments of crisis. This reminded us that digital solutions should enhance, not replace, the human touch.
Problem statements evolve with research: What started as a broad challenge became much clearer as I engaged with real people. Their experiences helped me reframe the problem with focus and empathy, rather than assumptions.
Stories drive stronger design than data alone: Interviews with participants like Lucas and Michelle helped me see emotional and psychological needs that the system wasn’t meeting. These insights became the foundation of our solution.
Visual methods create alignment in complex, collaborative work: Tools like journey maps, archetypes, and value exchange diagrams helped the whole team stay aligned—especially when working across disciplines and navigating abstract system-level challenges.