Reimagine the WIC enrollment process and benefit management for new mothers with limited resources.
Impact: Awarded $50K contract for LMI+USDA App Renovation Effort
Product designer
Oct 2022 - Dec 2022
1 Product manager
1 Project manager
USDA Client
Visual design
Interaction design
Figma
"The WIC program aims to safeguard the health of low-income women, infants, and children up to age 5 who are at nutrition risk by providing nutritious foods to supplement diets, information on healthy eating, and referrals to health care" - USDA.gov
The manual process to enroll into the WIC program can be confusing due to the reliance on phone scheduling and in-person registrations, this can act as a barrier for many eligible applicants.
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Managing benefits day-to-day can be confusing for those with limited knowledge on nutritious food for children in different age groups. In the app store alone, there are over 20 variants of the USDA WIC app trying to help with benefit management with each representing different states with varying user interfaces.
In an effort to increase coverage across the nation, the USDA wants to streamline end-to-end process of enrollment, benefits management, and education into one singular mobile app.
The signup process, WIC service location finder, appointment booking, and pre-enrollment training can now take place on the mobile phone.
Additional features to help new mothers track their spending, cash balance, and approved grocery lists are also implemented to streamline the process.
Only a select population of new and expecting mothers are qualified for WIC. They would need to meet a specific enrollment deadline and get the proper WIC welfare check before their application process can begin.
The app design for each State looks and feels different as they are designed in siloed without branding and standardization in mind.
The users can feel overwhelmed by the competing visuals of products, prices, and descriptions. This makes it difficult to look for what they want and track their shopping items.
The users are encouraged to learn nutritional education when shopping for their children, but there is a lack of recipes and nutrition guidance to put into practice.
USDA 2021 WIC data shows that the top 3 states with the highest WIC participants are
I compared the 3 different apps and looked for common features. Due to inability to reach actual participants, I also looked at the app store reviews to better analyzed the features and feedback.
Streamline the digital process with the physical process where the user needs to enroll through a clinic visit. This is solved through appointment booking and in-clinic app activation.
Solve the clutter of the digital to the physical experience where the user can browse in person while tracking their benefits. Scanning the bar code can speed up the process of checking items off the list.
Nutritional learning is a focus for both the mother and child. There needs to be an easy access library of educational videos. I also want to track the videos they have watched while creating a badge system to showcase their effort and knowledge.
Utilising the existing branding guide from the National WIC Association, I reimagined the design into a mobile based platform.
Streamline the initial sign-up process with map assistance to find the closest WIC clinic for the required health evaluation. An additional appointment booking system is implemented to create a one-stop-shop experience.
Prepare the users for what to expect for their first appointment through educational videos. After this training experience, the user will be taken to the activation window where a unique code is provided by WIC to activate the rest of the app features.
Improve the in-store experience through an in-cart tracking feature that also correlates to the shopping list feature. The bar code scanner can save the user time from searching manually in the database for the points required for purchase. The items then can be added to the cart.
A virtual learning center with educational videos for children and nutritional learning for the parent who will be shopping and cook for their child. The games library acts as a quiz to validate user learning while rewarding them experience points for their badge.
