Applying for citizenship is arguably one of the most stressful interactions a person can have with the federal government. Not only is the process complex and time consuming, but it's emotionally fraught — any outcome will have a major impact on the applicant's life.
Recognizing this, and wanting to provide a better experience to its customers, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) engaged 18F to design more human-centered forms and resources for folks seeking U.S. citizenship. During this engagement, we created a friendlier, plain-language version of the Application for Naturalization (N-400), a benefit-finding tool for citizenship seekers, an ESL class/civics test prep class locator, and an engaging microsite promoting Constitution Week.
As the project's content lead, I led a design studio to identify USCIS' core values and translate those into content principles; wrote a project-specific style guide; audited existing resources and performed a gap analysis before creating new content; and assisted with ongoing user research. For my work on this project, I received two awards: one from USCIS, and a ClearMark award from the Center for Plain Language.
Roles: Content lead, UX researcher (18F)
View my work: myUSCIS, myUSCIS Rights and Responsibilities
Read more: New citizenship resources demystify the naturalization process
