[sn41]

Designing more forgiving interfaces.

I work in the public sector in India. Usually forms here are phrased in threatening terms - you can submit any document only once, and there is a threat of perjury for just uploading the wrong document etc. I proposed that we can utilise cheap cloud storage so that users can submit documents as many times as they want, and as long as any of the uploaded documents are correct, then it will be accepted.

This reduced the phone calls our office received by about 80 percent.

[inapis]

IT in Indian Govt is stuck in 90s. Can't upload documents many times, unncessarily strict restrictions (like images uploaded have to be 120x120 and within 150 kb), the threats you mentioned AND the ABSOLUTE fetish with captcha and OTPs

I hope the Indian govt sets up something similar to that design/tech agency set up by US/UK govts.

In the meantime, a lot of props to you for designing interfaces that empathize with users. That's the kind of thoughtfullness we need!

[Aperocky]

That sounds like the (NC)DMV.. Of course, there are no risk of perjury (that I know of), but if something goes wrong you'll be invited to stay in line for another 4 hours.

[billfruit]

Not to mention the usage to blinking and moving marquee text to convey important information.

[john-radio]

It sounds like you also deserve credit for measuring the 80% improvement in call volume and using it to show the value of the change. That is how you make shit happen; respect.

[Aperocky]

That's amazing, kudos to you, I imagine it's difficult to pull this change? Are there political consideration that a line of command must all answer to?

[sn41]

No, you just have to overcome inertia. There are legal considerations for multiple uploads - who decides which document is valid etc. But once the policy is clearly vetted and publicly stated, the courts are usually fine with it.

[muzani]

Amazing. I've avoided work in the public sector because I thought I wouldn't accomplish anything. But this is a great example of how to be impactful in such a job.

[phaemon]

That is superb. What you're really saying is that 80% of your customers no longer feel the need to phone you.

[rahimnathwani]

"What you're really saying is that 80% of your customers no longer feel the need to phone you."

No, they're saying call volume went down by 80%. We know nothing about how many callers generated the calls before and after. Maybe each and every customer used to call them 5 times per month, and now each customer calls them only once per month. That would be an 80% reduction in calls, but a 0% reduction in # customers who feel the need to call.

[r0rshrk]

Holy shit ! This is super interesting ! I'm in India and always wondered why this happens. Have you written more about it somewhere else ?

[sn41]

No...unfortunately the details are confidential. But I wish there was a way to exchange best practices within the government agencies so that this sort of mechanism becomes widespread.

[asdko13roasi]

How much did it increase the workload and manual error rates of the reviewer for having to check multiple documents?