This project aimed to improve and broaden outreach for a program dedicated to supporting vulnerable communities in the State of Kentucky.
Role
UX Design Lead
Contributions
User Research, Secondary Research, PESTEL Analysis, Affinity Mapping, Ideations, Wireframing, Concept Generation, Interface Design, Testing
Duration
10 weeks
Tools
Figma
Figjam
Rotato
Adobe Illustrator
Team
10 Designers from
6 Majors
Project under NDA, Details Obscured
The contents of this project are protected by an NDA. Feel free to message me on LinkedIn to learn more.
Objective
The goal was to create a marketing strategy that would increase awareness, improve accessibility, and help more families benefit from the program's services
The Problem
Confusing steps, outdated info, and no one to guide them through.
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1 in 2 eligible families skip WIC
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15+ hidden drop-off points in sign-up
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49% didn’t even know they qualified
Impact
The marketing plan projected a 49% lift in enrollment intent in user testing.
Our prototype tested 30% clearer than Kentucky’s current system.
Projected to deliver an $8.5 million boost in program impact/value annually.
| Overview
Here’s the thing: the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program helps low-income families get nutritious food and healthcare, but the system is tangled in red tape. Many families who qualify don’t even know it — or give up halfway through. Deloitte asked us to reimagine how Kentucky could make WIC feel accessible, human, and actually used.
| Key Takeaways
1. Bringing People Together: By facilitating teamwork across designers, researchers, and Deloitte team, we ensured a seamless, user-centered approach to problem-solving.
2. Getting Real Insights from Real People: Coordinating interviews in real-world settings allowed our team to gather actionable insights, refining our design based on real user needs.
3. Turning Research into Action: By implementing user journey mapping and Lean UX principles, I guided the team in making research-backed design choices that aligned with business goals.
4. Agile Problem-Solving: We fostered a culture of adaptability, quickly iterating on ideas and aligning stakeholders on evolving requirements.
5. Communicating with Impact: Presenting findings and solutions to decision-makers honed my ability to bridge the gap between design, business objectives, and user needs.
Design Brief As A UX Design Lead
As one of the core designers and researchers, my job was to decode what real families actually struggle with, cut through the noise, and turn complex onboarding into something that feels like a simple yes.
| Grounded in Real Voices
I didn’t want guesses. I led deep-dive interviews with WIC moms, caregivers, and outreach workers. I asked about everything — what confuses them, what they fear, why they drop out.
Fun twist: I used Claude to help cluster insights from hundreds of open-ended responses fast — so we didn’t drown in sticky notes.
Target Research Participants
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Parents, especially women, with kids up to the age of 5 who fall below a certain economic level
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Program Operations Supervisors
Recruitment Locations
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Farmers' market
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Downtown Savannah
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Grocery stores
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CVS
80% of the people didn’t understand eligibility — income guidelines felt like a maze.
Research Insights
$105.3 million
Federal funding to the State of Kentucky in the fiscal year 2023
🔻119,884
Individuals were enrolled in the program in 2023
🔻34,000
Eligible individuals in Kentucky could be turned away from the program services by September 2024
| Mapping the Gaps
I turned our findings into a service blueprint — highlighting hidden dead-ends in the process. We found that what looked simple on paper had up to 15 points where families could stall.
Details of the journey are blurred out for confidentiality.
| Ideation
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I led ideation workshops with the team, transforming research and user insights into a wealth of innovative ideas. We collaboratively mapped out our concepts and key components of each feature.
We designed screen flows that:
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Demystified eligibility upfront
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Guided users step by step with plain language
No more PDF forms buried on old websites — everything clickable, mobile-friendly, and human.
| Generating Concepts
We employed a Lean UX Canvas to generate ideas and formulate our "We believe" statements, which guided our approach to improving the program. The canvas consists of five key parts, the fifth being our solutions or concept proposal.
| Reflection
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Policy design is design. And it’s messy.
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AI can be a real ally when you’re flooded with open-ended data.
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Clear words matter just as much as beautiful screens, especially for families balancing three jobs and a baby.
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But beyond that, this experience became a crash course in handling high-stress situations. My adaptability and quick thinking were truly put to the test, and I have to say—they worked wonders! Not only did they help us push forward, but they also kept the team motivated and in good spirits.
| What’s Next
When pushed this live, I’d integrate AI-powered chat to answer eligibility questions in plain English — and add reminders for renewals, because staying enrolled is half the battle.
It was one of those moments where we truly felt the impact of what we had created—knowing that our project could make a real difference in the real world.
Let’s talk about redesigning complex systems, together.
The contents of this project are protected by an NDA. Feel free to message me on LinkedIn to learn more.