Event Based Services Analysis

Every individual has interactions with the government throughout their life. These interactions depend on the person's age, field of activity, life events, and other specific characteristics. Each interaction is driven by a specific need, right, or obligation.

In the current evolving information society, the e-government is oriented towards the individual, not the other way around. Therefore, solutions should be created considering people's needs, so that public services support individuals in achieving their objectives.

The key term in the Event Services project is "proactivity" – this means that for accessing services, individuals do not have to search for them within the government's systems. Instead, these services are proactively offered to them by the government at the right time and in the right sequence.

Some services arise from information already known to the state, such as an individual reaching adulthood, becoming pregnant, or reaching retirement age. In other cases, the individual informs the state about their need for services, such as plans to marry.

The Estonian government portal, eesti.ee, consolidates various event services that a person might require throughout their life. This means the portal presents generalised information about all the event services one might use in their lifetime, including attending general education schools, fulfilling military service obligations, having a child, getting married, obtaining a driving licence, etc.

The portal recognises the user's position in the timeline of the event service and can guide the user to appropriate state self-service environments for accessing sub-services.

Users of the event service experience their progression through the service steps as a single process. However, since one service may involve using several state services, eesti.ee seamlessly connects with other state service systems at the appropriate time, enabling the necessary data exchange. Therefore, an event service comprises a series of sub-services provided by various agencies.

Detailed information about the sub-services that constitute the event service is not displayed on the central information portal, nor are actions related to consuming sub-services performed there - these functions are handled by various e-self-service environments. The portal's primary aim is to notify users about the need to use sub-services.

The event service represents a key direction in the development of e-government, with the aim of simplifying the interaction between private individuals, businesses, and the government. The philosophy of event services is to proactively provide e-government services when there is a need, ensuring that people don’t have to worry about keeping up with all their obligations to the state or being aware of all their rights.

By the end of 2023, European Union member states are required to fully digitise a number of cross-border public services. These include 21 public services, categorised under seven life events: birth, residency, education, employment, moving, retirement, and starting, managing, or closing a business.

We began our event services analysis by describing the current (as-is) situation. Our aim was to understand the processes for delivering each service at that time and identify any potential problem areas.

In our descriptions of each event service's current state, we focused on important user groups related to the service, including statistics and trends.

We detailed the services as they were and analysed them in the context of event services, considering the overall business and information processes, and how data moves between the roles involved in the event service and the information systems in use. We highlighted the main barriers and issues in the workflows and established metrics for the overall event service.

The findings from the current (as-is) situation mapping served as the foundation for the future-oriented (to-be) analysis, which outlines the envisioned future of the service. Consequently, we plan an event service that enables users to smoothly access all services linked to a specific life event.

In designing the future (to-be) service, we centered on the objectives, needs, and expectations of the users, and aimed to address the problems identified in the service's present state.

The future service was designed to be as proactive as possible. This means minimising the number of actions required by the user and primarily having the state initiate the delivery of the service and its subcomponents.

The first step in the to-be analysis involved understanding the needs and goals of the end-users. We included representatives from the institutions providing the services, as well as the end-users themselves in the to-be analysis. We refined the description of the service's future vision based on their feedback.

As a result, we created personas. Taking these described personas into account, we designed the service's to-be vision, or the potential future solution. To demonstrate this vision, we developed a prototype, which allows us to gather feedback from the end-users on the planned service.

 1. Personas

A persona is a summary of a type of end-user with similar goals. A persona is a fictional character that represents the attributes of real end-users. Here, an end-user refers to a person who consumes the event service, rather than being involved in its provision. 

The objectives of creating personas are: 

• to form a common vision among project stakeholders about the user for whom the system is being created.
• to make design-related decisions during the creation of prototypes, based on these personas.
• to prioritize the content of the system and highlight functionalities important to different user groups.

In creating personas, we based them on the user groups of the five agreed-upon event services. In describing a persona, we mapped the needs, goals, expectations, pain points, and behavioral patterns of the selected user group in relation to the specific event service.

The information for creating personas was obtained from representatives of the institutions providing the services, who interact with end-users on a daily basis. During the project, we described at least one persona for each of the five event services selected for to-be analysis.

 2. Description of the To-be Vision

We developed the to-be vision or the potential future solution of the service according to the expectations and objectives of the personas. The description of the to-be situation for each event service includes the following essential information:

For the purposes of demonstrating the user interfaces, we developed wireframe-style prototypes that align with user expectations and the business needs of the organisation responsible for the event service.

The objectives of the prototypes were to: 

• to clarify the concepts for providing event services;
• to enable quick feedback;  
• to recognize and resolve issues prior to the commencement of system development.

For each agreed-upon event service user interface, we prototyped up to 7 views, covering the system's essential functionalities and the event service's main user journey from the end-user perspective. We focused on demonstrating the event service as a whole and did not delve into the details of sub-service processes.

In this project scope, it was important to understand the main workflow and key decision points. The goal of the prototype was to help validate the concepts created with users and understand what questions and concerns the designed event services raise.

The created prototypes are interactive, allowing functionalities to be tested on end-users. Testing enables the identification and resolution of usability issues, such as areas in the user interface or service logic that are uncomfortable or seem illogical to users. 

As part of the project, we asked users to complete 5-7 test tasks. Testing was conducted individually, with each session lasting up to an hour, and was recorded as audio and screen captures. If necessary, we clarified users' needs during the testing session by asking additional questions. In total, we conducted 15 usability tests, meaning we tested each event service user interface prototype on 3 end-users. 

As a result of testing, we identified usability issues and made corresponding changes to the prototypes where necessary.

We comprehensively analysed five event services, examining both the current operational state (as-is) and the proposed comprehensive service model (to-be), depicting the desired future state. These services included marriage, fulfilling military service obligations, childbirth, dealing with the death of a loved one, and retirement.

As a result of our work, we delivered an analysis document along with interactive prototypes to the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications.

The project's outcomes are now visible through event services accessible and consumable from the homepage of the eesti.ee government portal. Building on our analysis and prototypes, development activities continue with other partners of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications, and more event services are gradually being added to the eesti.ee portal.

At Trinidad Wiseman, we have been involved in projects for both the public and private sectors for over 18 years. Our projects are evenly split between the private and public sectors, and our extensive experience confirms that effective collaboration with each client is vital for project implementation and outcomes. Only with such an approach can we develop services that genuinely meet the desires and needs of our clients.

Human-centredness has been fundamental to Trinidad Wiseman since its inception, both in our projects and in our work culture. We are pleased that in the event services project, the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications was highly motivated as a client to invest in human-centred design because they genuinely want to improve and streamline the lives of Estonian citizens.

The Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications had conducted thorough preparatory work and had a clear vision of the future of Estonian e-services. They were deeply involved in the project - always planning time and actively participating in workshops, brainstorming, and providing swift and valuable feedback. 

s the service provider, we are pleased to have helped the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications directly improve the lives of Estonian citizens. On one hand, we helped the government take a significant step towards meeting the obligations set by the European Union for the development of e-services. But more importantly, the entire process focused on end-users, making communication with the state even simpler, smoother, and more enjoyable for them.