Appointed Representatives landing page rework

Challenge

Until this project, appointed legal representation had no centralized way to access the tools and platforms needed to do their work. SSA.gov offered a patchwork of pages spread across multiple directories, requiring representatives to keep track of links manually or navigate through unrelated citizen-focused interfaces. These friction points directly affected how well representatives could serve clients, who are typically indigent or houseless individuals with physical or cognitive impairments. Or individuals who are experiencing medical crisis. All too frequently, it’s all of the above.

Our vision was to build a modern microsite structured around the appointed representative’s workflow. However, budget constraints meant we could only deliver a single page. We needed to prioritize information architecture, clarity, and scannability—while matching the refreshed SSA.gov design language. This single pager should provide enough structure to scale into a full microsite in future iterations.

Solution

Working with a small team of service designers and subject matter experts, I led a collaborative process to discover and refine the best structural approach to solutioning for appointed representative experience. We started with a review of existing user journey research, followed by a card sort workshop to define the task taxonomy. This formed the basis of our sitemap. We then translated that structure into a responsive, single-page layout using SSA’s existing content page framework, enhanced with the newly adopted USWDS “on-the-page” navigation component. The “on-the-page” is a right-rail navigation is pinned to the top corner, and contains a list of anchor links to each section in the page. This is perfect for allowing content to be discoverable on very long scrolling pages (which our initial design was constrained to.)

Each major task category was broken into its own section. Within each section, we used modular cards for specific tasks or services—complete with descriptive content and deep links to relevant tools. I created wireframes and a high-fidelity prototype in Figma, which we tested first with members of the general public to validate baseline usability.

Thanks to coordination with an external professional association, we were then able to conduct targeted remote user research and prototype validation testing with appointed representatives nationwide. Feedback from those sessions informed adjustments to labeling, grouping, and card structure.

Final version of the Appointed Representatives landing page is live at https://www.ssa.gov/representation/

Learnings

This project validated that even a single well-structured landing page can provide significant service improvements. Especially when paired with a rigorous design and research process. By incorporating responsive layout, role-based IA, and scroll-based wayfinding, we created a scalable entry point for a complex user group previously underserved on SSA.gov.

We also learned that deep user insight often emerges late in the process. Our late-stage formative interviews highlighted major environmental barriers that fundamentally affect representatives’ service delivery. One example that sticks out for me is the feedback we got from some legal offices elected not to use the new digital forms when working with their clients because their clients were entirely incapable of understanding or using even the simplest digital interfaces. It all this office could do to connect social services with the people who needed them the most was to print out a stack of paper forms and approach people saying ‘if you sign this we can get you access to care.’

On a practical level, the project became an opportunity for upskilling across the team: our subject matter experts gained hands-on experience with design thinking, prototyping, and synthesis. For everyone involved, it was a masterclass in how good UX can directly improve public service outcomes.

Wireframes and Prototyping

Below is a future version of an Appointed Representatives microsite. Funding was only secured for updating a single page so content had to be optimized for a single long-scrolling page in the MVP relaunch. A future version will have a landing page and a number of subject-specific detail pages with a left-rail secondary navigation

Artifacts for developer