Case Study – New York State

The client

The New York State Department of Taxation and Finance administers more than 40 state and local taxes and fees, collecting more than $14 billion in local sales tax and $8 billion in local income tax each year. The department is committed to reducing the cost of business by providing taxpayers clear, intuitive information, forms and tools—including websites—to help them fulfill their tax obligations. It seems to be working: More than 96 percent of the taxes collected are remitted voluntarily by taxpayers.

The challenge

The NYS Department of Taxation and Finance (DTF) website provides information for taxpayers of all shapes and sizes, ranging from seniors to students and from Manhattan Financials to local ice-cream shops to individuals selling hand-made goods at regional festivals. When legislation driving tax payers toward online services emerged, DTF knew it was time to create a user-centered design capability and culture that could support integration, expansion and evolution of digital services. They turned to Usability.org for a solution.

The solution

Usability.org met with their web team leadership to review existing UX practices and develop customized UX training for the emerging UX group. The to-be core team and select senior executives participated in 3 UX Workshops over the course of 8 months. Workshops covered:

Effective User Research

UX Design

Usability Testing

After each workshops, participants applied newly acquired skills to a critical, ongoing project, under the watchful eye of Usability.org trainers. Regular meetings (just like project update meetings) and “office hours” provided the new practitioners the chance to present design artifacts/get feedback, share learnings, ask questions, and explore options and ideas in an informed, exploration-friendly environment. .

Multiple rounds of usability testing (Prototype testing after the Interaction Design Workshop, and Summative testing after the Usability Testing workshop), showed that the design (and the students!) met key user needs and improved through feedback.

https://www.tax.ny.gov/tp/

The result

With our customized UX research and training, the NYS DTF launched on a solid foundation of customer- and data-driven, UX methods and best practices. Our Hear it – See it—Do it strategy helped participants build and practice key skills, gaining confidence in both the execution and value of Usability for the agency.