I love finding ways to improve the user experience. While contracted to redesign the Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation (BWC) website, I interviewed stakeholders to understand their challenges. The customer service director aimed to reduce incoming calls by 25%. Through interviews, I discovered that many calls came from injured workers asking reps to read website content or letters aloud.
Digging deeper, I found that most injured workers did not have a GED and may be functionally illiterate - lacking the reading and writing skills needed for everyday tasks. I confirmed this with user interviews and surveys. To address the issue, I proposed lowering the reading level of both the website and mailed correspondence to a fifth-grade level. At the start, the website content was at college-level; we reduced it to 10th-grade reading level during the redesign.
This change improved comprehension for injured workers and reduced the need for support calls, demonstrating the tangible impact of thoughtful user-centered design.
Open to contract UX research opportunities.
Email: theresaw@columbus.rr.com
LinkedIn: theresa-wilkinson