Department of Justice
Automating & consolidating manual processes to improve efficiency
Role
Design Lead
Timeline
4 months
Team
Colin (Engineering Lead)
Allison (PM)
The DOJ Employee Service Portal (DOJEMP) is a product created as part of an effort to modernise the DOJ's internal tooling. The DOJEMP is a centralized platform for workforce management.
As the product design lead, I worked with the client to create a design system and managed implementation across the product. In addition, I designed specialized features for various user groups, like Human Resource specialists.
One of those specialized features was "Time to Hire," a robust onboarding tool that allowed HR staff to manage the extensive federal hiring process more efficiently.
Utilizing integrations, auto-populating smart fields, and generation of documents, all in one place, this tool allows HR staff, who previously completed this work manually, to manage personnel in a much more efficient manner, streamlining processes with hundreds of steps and multiple users.
Through user research and discussing with stakeholders, I learned that a time-consuming and consistent pain point in the onboarding process was handling specific documents that had to be filled out each time with redundant information.
To address this pain point, I fought for the affordance of a dynamic attachments widget. Keeping ease of implementation top of mind, I designed a widget that serves as a per-segment document checklist and allows for the generation, download, and upload of documents on one screen.
Document Generation
Generation of documents on a per page basis allows for relevant information to be pulled and filled in automatically, providing the user with a document that requires little to no manual effort to complete, and reducing redundancy in the process.
Generated Document Download
Downloading generated, pre-filled documents on the relevant form reduces confusion and frustration; users have guidance regarding necessary supporting documents and more importantly are able to complete related tasks in one place.
Reviewed Document Upload
Uploading reviewed documents directly on the relevant form provides a more organized experience, allowing HR specialists to move through the process more efficiently while reducing errors through document screening.
File Checklist
The widget also serves as a checklist of necessary documents for each segment, as well as the status of each, surfacing helpful information without adding weight to an already information-heavy page.
The attachment widget is a lightweight addition to the Time to Hire feature that provides HR specialists a clean way to keep track of necessary documents, allowing for easier movement through the process. The addition of document generation to reduce manual work, document downloads for user review and tracking compliance, and simple document upload further reduce errors and redundancy, simplifying the overall process and improving efficiency.
Outcomes
While this case study covers just a slice of my contribution to this project, it is a great example of a seemingly small but highly impactful affordance. These cost-friendly, high impact affordances helped earn the product a 2024 special commendation from the Office of the Chief Information Officer.