How do we make AOC services more empathetic?
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- Open administration
Generative AI: from euphoria to reality (also in Public Administration)
Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the use of public services over the Internet has increased dramatically. Despite having to be closed at home, the Administration continued to offer public services to the population thanks, in large part, to the previous digitization work. An indicator that shows this increase is the digital identity, a requirement for processing via the Internet. Registrations at idCAT tripled in 2020, a demand that has been sustained over time.
This one acceleration in the use of the digital channel due to COVID-19 to which part of the population was pushed has surfaced the empathy deficit when designing digital public services towards citizens and public personnel, users of these services.
Every successful digital product is basically based on the management of 3 pillars: deny us, technology and people. To sum it up, the business ensures viability and has clear business objectives and needs (finances, policies, legal aspects...). Technology, on the other hand, dictates what is feasible, that is, what can be built today. But it is empathy with people and, in general, the user experience, that determines whether a product is useful, usable and/or desirable, in short whether it will be used. This last pillar includes aspects of research, design, style, understanding and accessibility among others, which are often overlooked because they are not evident until the service goes out into the real world.
The difficulties in dealing with or relating digitally with the Administration stand out (and in the media) as has been seen with the saturation of previous appointments and face-to-face care or serious problem it represents for the elderly and for the vulnerable families who do not know how to ask for aid.
In addition, the bar of expectations regarding the immediacy and ease of use of digital services continues to rise, in large part due to the efforts of the private sector to eliminate any friction suffered by its customers that ends up having repercussions in the profits of the business. The comparison with public services is odious, as one reflects SalesForce study where he exposes that the 71% of users of the Digital Administration say that their services are not of high quality.
All this leads the Administration to a point of no return where society demands a better user experience in public services that will increase and to which the administrations must respond.
The proposal of the AOC
Although almost 8 out of 10 users of AOC services say they are satisfied or very satisfied (we do more than 350.000 surveys a year), we were aware that a part of the people using these services suffered from frustration in use and many were excluded as they considered themselves conservative and skeptical, following the technology adoption curve.
With this awareness, and knowing that efforts had previously been made to implement a design culture centered on citizenship, for 3 years, we are integrating systemically in the design of services this mentality and methodologies aimed at detecting and solving the needs and problems of users, both citizens and companies as well as public employees, so that we can provide them with value as soon as possible.
These methodologies, mainly formed by Design Thinking and Lean Start-up, are characterized by introducing work with users throughout the life process of a service. They are divided into several phases that work iteratively, where each phase has a set of methods and techniques that will be used depending on the resources and uncertainties of the project. This approach, in addition to giving us knowledge about users, gives us agility of delivery, as well as consistency in our services, thanks to the Design Systems created, which are a kind of collection of rules and guidelines of style and components.
By transferring this empathy to our services, we hope to extinguish some of the frustrations with the services of the Administration and mark the right path to design quality services, which will hopefully serve as a reference for the rest of the public bodies.
Find out more about what it consists of project to improve the experience of digital services.