Our client, LIFT Dane, has a truly ambitious vision and we are thrilled to be helping them realize it. Their goal is to increase income of Dane Count, WI residents through the identification and removal of legal barriers to more gainful employment. The product, Legal Tune Up, is live and free to use.
Legal Tune Up takes basic information from a user (Name and DOB) and then pulls available public records to identify if the user may have legal issues that can be resolved. For example, in the first release, the product pulls data from the Wisconsin Circuit Court database to identify if a user has a criminal or eviction record that is eligible to be removed. If so, the product takes the user through a simple process to generate the required form, and even automates sending the form to the court via regular mail.
The second release included the ability for a user to apply to receive employment and training help. Further iterations coming in 2021 include the ability to remove criminal records from the state DOJ database, review and modify child support orders, relieve medical debt, and more.
“Hiring Theory and Principle to develop our app was propitious particularly because they started the development work just before the coronavirus hit. I have been impressed with their creativity, their agility and, importantly, their ability to easily pivot their design work as our data access and testing requirements continually evolve(d). The background and expertise that they bring to our project provides a collaborative environment in which to explore and test new ideas. Theory & Principle has developed innovative and very usable technology through their user-focused approach.”
The process began with a stakeholder workshop to understand client needs and start to gain an understanding of the cornerstone user of the product. We then flew to Wisconsin to observe and interview people at a drivers license reinstatement clinic. During this time we were actively working to obtain access to data for what we thought the first release would include — license reinstatements.
While planning our second trip to WI to interview more users, COVID hit. We then struggled to get the data we needed from the state Department of Transportation, so we pivoted to both remote user testing/research, as well as focusing on criminal and eviction record removal, as that data was available via API.
We then translated everything we learned into clickable mid-fidelity wireframes of the most important pieces of the application that we then tested with users and refined. Next, we moved on to moodboarding and styling, starting with mobile designs first and then moving to desktop. After creating a style guide of the selected mood, we started to build. During the build cycles, we continued to refine and design all of the ancillary pages and functions for the product. Work continues today on future feature releases.
