The State of New Mexico:
Creating a Unified Web Experience for State Benefits

Client

State of New Mexico

The Team

UX Design Team
Business Analyst Team
Development Team
Client Team

Time Frame

1 year

The Challenge

The State of New Mexico’s web experience for health services is fragmented across three separate websites, each operating in isolation with no clear connection to the others. These sites are outdated, featuring cluttered layouts, inconsistent branding, and dense blocks of text that make it difficult for users to find, read, and understand critical health information.

The lack of cohesion between the sites creates a disjointed user experience, forcing residents to navigate multiple platforms with different designs, navigation structures, and terminology. This fragmentation, combined with information overload and poor usability, leaves users (especially those with limited digital literacy) feeling overwhelmed and frustrated.

The Solution

The State of New Mexico partnered with us to streamline the branding and transform the "informing" user experience across their health services websites. By unifying the three fragmented sites into one cohesive platform, we created a consistent visual identity and an intuitive, information-first design. This approach ensures residents can easily find, understand, and act on critical health information, making the process of discovering and qualifying for services more efficient and less overwhelming.

How might we create a unified, user-friendly web experience for New Mexico residents to easily access and understand critical health information, reducing frustration and improving accessibility across all health services platforms?
The Approach:

Mending Broken Workflows

The problem was that users had to navigate multiple disconnected platforms for each state benefit, often facing broken logins and struggling to link their applications, which led to duplicate submissions and wasted time.
To address this, we mapped out the three key platforms and identified the tasks users needed to complete. We then designed a new, unified dashboard with modular components to organize information, highlight urgent messages, and allow users to track all their applications in one place. This streamlined experience eliminated the need for multiple logins, reduced redundancy, and gave users more control over managing their benefits, saving time and reducing frustration.

Tech Fluency: Understanding User Comfort Levels

I knew users struggled with finding application status updates through the existing digital platforms, as the information was scattered across multiple outlets. To better understand their needs, I conducted around 12 rounds of user interviews with individuals who had used or were currently using the dashboards.

Our goal was to gauge their comfort with technology and identify how we could design the dashboard for maximum usability, ensuring it met users where they were in terms of tech fluency.

Pain Points & Needs

  • "If i could see all my benefits with one log in, that would make my life so much easier"
  • "If my account can let me know if i've already applied for something before, so i don't have to go through the process again"
  • "I'm not good with technology, so the simpler the better!!"

Shared User Behaviors

  • The average customer has a 5th-grade level understanding of technology.
  • Customers frequently apply for 3 or more benefits at the same time.
  • Many customers preferred applying over the phone with a state employee, as it gave them confidence that their application would be successfully processed.
The Solution:

Designing a Dashboard That Feels Familiar and Easy to Use

In comparison to the new experience, the existing dashboards were visually outdated and lacked intuitive design, presenting users with overwhelming information. The cluttered layout made navigation difficult, leaving users frustrated and confused.

Unified Dashboard

We created a one-stop shop dashboard experience, built with modular components that organize key information to help users to:
  • Track Actions & Notices:
    Users will receive notifications for important deadlines, such as upcoming meetings with state employees, social workers, or lawyers, as well as reminders for benefit renewals. The feature helps users stay on top of their benefits and ensures they never miss critical tasks or deadlines.
  • Track Programs:
    Provides visibility into all the benefits users have applied for in the past, helping them stay informed and avoid reapplying for the same benefits in the future.
  • Manage Applications:
    ‍    This feature keeps track of all past and current benefit applications in one place, helping users avoid submitting duplicates or losing progress. It also allows them to pick up where they left off, saving time and reducing frustration.
Inpact & Next Steps

"I love how everything is in one place now!!" - User 8 Interview

Reflecting on this phase, it was the first crucial step in shaping the platform’s visual interface, and we quickly realized the next challenge: integrating separate back-end data systems into one cohesive system.

Working closely with the development team, we ensured that these systems communicated seamlessly, guaranteeing that the modules we designed pulled and displayed client data accurately. From consistent naming conventions to precise click-through behavior, every detail mattered. This collaboration laid the foundation for a unified, reliable user experience. It reinforced how essential cross-functional teamwork and meticulous attention to detail were in transforming design concepts into a fully functional, impactful product.

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