Newborn registration

The online service no longer reflects social norms

The online Newborn Registration Service used confusing language that led parents to input information that are not accurate to what the government needs. This has resulted in added cost and labour to fix these errors (also known as adjudications).

As we become more inclusive with gender neutral parental roles, a redesigned digital service is on its way to keep up with the times.

In the meantime, our team was tasked to modify parental language in the existing legacy system while the redesign is implemented.

Constraints included:

we could only change text.
we could not change any systems logic (for example we could not move questions from one page to another, remove or add another input field).
we could not change policy or regulations.
maintain gender neutral language.

Whiteboard session of different parents that may go through the Newborn Registration system.

Photo of a work session

Workshop to uncover system requirements

The purpose of the workshop was to:

identify all users that go through the system (regardless of whether or not they are qualified to apply).
go through each problematic screen and identify which form fields are intended for which users.
brainstorm possible solutions.

We knew that a user-centric approach would be our surest way to make even the smallest incremental improvements within these constraints. We started with a content workshop because it was text that we could change.
_{— Shannah Segal}

Usability with adapted A/B test participants

Two versions of the prototypes were presented, alternating between A/B and B/A, to reduce bias on the first prototype presented.

There were a total of 14 participants.

P

C-M

P

C-M

P

C-M

P

C-M

P

C-F

P

C-F

P

C-F

P

C-F

P

C-M

LGBT+

P

C-M

LDL

P

C-F

ESL

LDL

P

C-F

ESL

C-M

LGBT+

Demographics

P

Parent (13)

C-M

Cis-male (7)

C-F

Cis-female (6)

ESL

English as a second language (2)

LGBT+

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and related communities (2)

LDL

Low digital literacy (2)

Small but significant improvements

The approved version was a hybrid that used the best elements from each prototype. Here are some design takeaways:

using red text does not make people want to read
left align input fields help people scan the content quicker
providing more examples and explanations can be confusing
the order of the questions matters

What was live

Question for person certifying the birth registration. Selections include: parent who gave birth (birth parent) only, parent who gave birth (birth parent) and parent(s), parent(s) only (one or more parents are incapable due to illness or death), other (person with care and custody).

Proposed changes

Question for person certifying the birth registration. Selections include: the only parent, the parent along with additional parent(s), one of the parents and will certify on behalf of the other parent due to illness or death, and the person with care and custody, but do not intend to be the parent(s) of the child.

What is the difference between listed and certified? Ok I see what is going on here, that’s more clear.
_{— Participant}

What was live

Section is labelled birth parent's information

Proposed changes

My birth? Not the baby’s birth? So many births... it’s everywhere!
‍_{— Participant}

What was live

Section for parent information. Enter the details of the next parent (not the parent who gave birth).

Proposed changes

Section called Next parent. Note: do not repeat the previous parent's information from Step 7 (parent who gave birth)

Percentage of errors

Since we implemented the changes on March 31, 2019, the most noticeable improvement was the error of a male parent listed as the parent who gave birth, with a 56% reduction of errors in the three months since the changes went live.

Father as parent who gave birth

A parent’s name is listed twice

Only the father’s name is listed

Takeaways

By workshopping with ministry partners to test the prototypes, we were able to make inclusive changes and reduce the number of manual fixes required given the limited constraints.

In an ideal scenario, I would have liked to redesign the entire service from start to finish rather than only fix parts of the service. However, time and resources would have needed to be allocated.

Given our scope, we considered this a small win, and small wins are still improvements.

The online service no longer reflects social norms

Workshop to uncover system requirements

Usability with adapted A/B test participants

Demographics

Small but significant improvements

What was live

Proposed changes

What was live

Proposed changes

What was live

Proposed changes

Percentage of errors

Father as parent who gave birth

Father as parent who gave birth

A parent’s name is listed twice

A parent’s name is listed twice

Only the father’s name is listed

Only the father’s name is listed

Takeaways

Blog about newborn registration

User research with parents guides changes to newborn registration forms

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