Role
Human Centered Designer / UX Designer
Broader Systems Experience
Employment Insurance – Service & Product Design
Designing across service mapping, reporting flows, and internal service improvements in a complex public sector environment.
My work in the Employment Insurance space has spanned service design, product design, and internal service improvement. I started on the service design side, helping map how people interact with Service Canada around EI benefits across channels like online, phone, email, and in-person support.
From there, my work moved closer to product design. I contributed to improvements in the EI reporting flow and worked on both the external experience used by the public and the internal interfaces used by Service Canada officers. Later, I moved to another team focused on employee-facing updates related to Intake and Eligibility. Across these phases, the common thread was improving complex service experiences without losing sight of the operational realities behind them.
Scope
Service mapping, workshop participation, transactional flow improvement, internal interface improvement
Context
Federal service environment, cross-channel service design, public and internal-facing systems
Service channel
Online
Service channel
Phone
Service channel
Service channel
In person
Phase
Phase 1 — Understanding the Service Landscape
I started this work on the service design side, where the focus was understanding how people interact with Service Canada around Employment Insurance benefits across the full service ecosystem. That meant looking beyond a single interface and mapping the broader experience across online services, phone support, email, and in-person touchpoints.
A key part of that work involved interviewing subject matter experts from different areas and gathering the operational context behind how the service actually functioned. I also participated in workshops with SMEs and led one section of a workshop series organized by the team lead. Together, that work helped build a clearer picture of how the system operated across channels, where responsibilities intersected, and where the experience became difficult for the people using or supporting it.
This phase strengthened my understanding of service design in a practical way. It was not just about mapping touchpoints, but about understanding how policy, operations, service delivery, and user needs all shape the experience at the same time.
Phase
Phase 2 — Moving into Product Design
After working on the service design side, I moved into product design work focused on the Employment Insurance reporting flow. In that role, I worked on both the external experience used by the public and the internal interfaces used by Service Canada officers.
That made the work especially valuable because the reporting flow could not be treated as a standalone user journey. Changes on the public-facing side affected how information was received, interpreted, and acted on internally, while internal workflows also shaped what the external experience needed to support. Designing in that environment meant thinking across both sides of the service rather than optimizing for only one audience.
This phase deepened my product design practice in a more operationally connected way. It reinforced the importance of creating flows that are clear and usable for the public, while also supporting the realities of the people administering the service behind the scenes.
Phase
Phase 3 — Supporting Employee-Facing Improvements
Later, I moved to work more directly on employee-facing screens related to Intake and Eligibility. These interfaces are used by service officers as part of determining whether a client is eligible for Employment Insurance benefits.
The work focused on improving the current process and screens while supporting a broader transition from an older system into a newer one. My role was centered on helping service officers move through that process more clearly and effectively, improving the usability of the screens without losing sight of the operational structure behind them.
Because this work sits inside an internal government system, I need to be careful about what I share in detail. There will not be screenshots for this section. Even so, it represents an important part of my experience: improving employee-facing service tools in a context where system transition, process clarity, and day-to-day usability all matter.
Phase
What This Work Strengthened
Working across Employment Insurance strengthened my ability to design within complex public service systems from multiple angles. I was able to contribute at the service level, the product level, and the internal operational level, moving between broader ecosystem thinking and more focused interface work depending on what the team needed.
Across these phases, one thing stayed consistent: the work was always about improving clarity inside systems that carry real procedural and operational weight. Whether I was mapping service interactions, working on reporting flows, or helping improve internal Intake and Eligibility screens, the goal was to make the experience more usable without losing sight of how the service actually functions.
This body of work strengthened my ability to design for complexity in a practical way. It also reinforced the kind of work I enjoy most: improving systems that need to work not just as interfaces, but as part of larger services people rely on.