Role: UX/UI Designer
Client: City of Turin
Client: City of Turin
Overview
SIGE is the system with which the city of Turin manages its income from different types of taxes. Before using SIGE every tax had a dedicated application used by different employees of the municipality. Even if every tax has its own users, SIGE brings consistency and uniformity to the income management of the city.
My Role
I worked on SIGE as UX/UI Designer. Together with analysts I was asked to re-design the users’ flows, making it easier for users to do their job and designing an application that could be scalable in the management of different taxes.
So my team and I analyzed with users the old app, mapping the Information Architecture and designing the new user flows. After that, I made Wireframes and tested with the users with a prototype. The final step consisted in creating the Design System and giving the wireframes the definitive layout.
Findings
The most relevant questions to take into consideration in working on a project like SIGE were that there were different apps to manage taxes and incomes, but the client needed a unique, consistent, and clear software solution.
Indeed, users have to manage high-complexity procedures, without making mistakes and being able to solve them when they occur.
Indeed, users have to manage high-complexity procedures, without making mistakes and being able to solve them when they occur.
The oldest version of one of the software used to manage tax income.
The first questions that emerged were:
1) How might we design interfaces that could be scalable and respond at the same type to all of the different necessities?
2) How might we give users controlled paths to avoid errors, and allow them to freely manage information and procedures at the same time?
1) How might we design interfaces that could be scalable and respond at the same type to all of the different necessities?
2) How might we give users controlled paths to avoid errors, and allow them to freely manage information and procedures at the same time?
One example of users' flow for a tax income management
The Challenge
The most difficult thing in this project was the necessity of a scalable system of tax management, even if different incomes need different types of flows (considering that every income has its own group of users).
In fact, a very challenging target was to design a menù that could rapidly give access to the desired function without creating confusion.
Another difficult aspects were the number of information that employees of the municipality use to manage taxes. Finding the right hierarchy wasn’t easy, given that every single piece of information could possibly cause trouble to citizens, assigning them debts or disservices. Furthermore, users needed to freely handle the application to solve pending situations, and this could create obstacles in terms of error prevention.
Another difficult aspects were the number of information that employees of the municipality use to manage taxes. Finding the right hierarchy wasn’t easy, given that every single piece of information could possibly cause trouble to citizens, assigning them debts or disservices. Furthermore, users needed to freely handle the application to solve pending situations, and this could create obstacles in terms of error prevention.
Modals
Solutions
To ensure that the designed pattern can fit different types of procedures we analyzed the most complicated income management so that a very complex template could be simplified and shaped for all the tax management procedures included in SIGE. We worked indeed in a structure divided into sections, where sections such as ‘Subject’, ‘Period’, ‘Issued notes’, etc, could be managed depending on the type of tax.
To be sure that users could freely handle the system, and at the same time being able to solve problems if something went wrong, we opted for an ad hoc ‘error management system’, that allows users to cancel the last action in a controlled way, restoring the previous situation without changing other important data.
To do that we had to design not only ‘confirm’ patterns, but also work on UX copy that could show the user how to use these deleting functions, even how to find and handle desired information in a clear way.
To be sure that users could freely handle the system, and at the same time being able to solve problems if something went wrong, we opted for an ad hoc ‘error management system’, that allows users to cancel the last action in a controlled way, restoring the previous situation without changing other important data.
To do that we had to design not only ‘confirm’ patterns, but also work on UX copy that could show the user how to use these deleting functions, even how to find and handle desired information in a clear way.