Virtual Registry
Project Overview
Brief
The virtual registry is a service provided by the Massachusetts Probate and Family Court by which the public can video call for queries related to their court cases. The court wanted to understand its effectiveness and find ways to improve the service.
Outcome
Our research demonstrated the impact of user-centricity, and led to the creation of a court committee dedicated to improving the UX of court services. Recommendations from our report are currently in the process of being implemented.
Methods
• Observation of the virtual registry operations
• User Interviews with callers and attorneys
• Survey Design
• Thematic analysis of data
Team Size
4 UX Researchers, under the guidance of Prof. Demetrios Karis
My Role
Research planning, conducting observations and interviews, data analysis and presentation
Project Duration
~ 10 weeks
Introduction
The Massachusetts Probate and Family Court deals with matters such as divorce, child support, and wills. People seeking assistance in finding forms, filing documents, etc. can speak to a court clerk at the courthouse registry.
When the Covid-19 pandemic started, the court decided to provide the registry service virtually. The public can now dial in to the registry Zoom meeting to speak to the clerk.
The court wanted to understand the virtual registry effectiveness and caller satisfaction, and find ways to improve their services.
Research Planning
To decide on the approach, we needed to experience the virtual registry firsthand. For a week, each of us took turns to dial in to the Essex virtual registry and observe its operation. We took notes on devices used, reason for calling, general behaviors and issues observed.
Note: The callers' discussions involved highly confidential matters, and we were not allowed to record personally identifiable information, take pictures, video or audio recordings.
After the initial observations, we understood how the virtual registry operates:
* Lawyer of the Day is a court provided program through which attorneys can volunteer to provide free basic legal assistance
We also identified additional areas that needed to be considered:
• Callers' experience before dialing in and after ending the call
• Experience of people who called when no researcher was present
• Experience of attorneys who volunteered for Lawyer of the Day
To accommodate these, we decided to conduct User Interviews and a Survey.
User Interviews with callers
As we could not take callers' contact information, we could only interview them in the registry zoom meeting. We had to ensure we did not disrupt the registry operations or callers' schedules. Keeping these constraints in mind, we developed the following hybrid observation + interview process in collaboration with the court personnel:
We planned to discuss with callers their thoughts on using Zoom and the virtual experience, whether they accomplished their task and understood next steps, and general feedback.
User Interviews with Lawyer of the Day attorneys
We planned to conduct informal, unstructured interviews with 3-4 attorneys who volunteered for Lawyer of the Day. The purpose was to understand how the program fits into the virtual registry and identify issues faced.
Survey
We created a short survey to capture feedback from callers when no observers were on the call.
The registry clerk sent the survey URL to callers via Zoom chat and asked them to respond to it after the call ended. To increase respondent compliance, we designed the survey with just 4 questions: caller type (self-represented litigant / attorney), ratings for experience and ease of use, and optional explanation for ratings.
Data Collection: Overview
For 8 weeks, we gathered data by interacting with ~135 callers and 3 attorneys from Lawyer of the Day.
Data Analysis
We analyzed our data thematically: each of us individually identified codes and themes from our notes and compiled them into a shared excel sheet. This included notes from observations, and user interviews. While we ran the survey for 4 weeks, we did not get enough responses to derive findings.
At the end of our analysis, we had identified 8 themes.
Key Findings
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Outcome
We delivered a detailed report and a Powerpoint presentation containing details of methods, user quotes, key findings and recommendations. We presented our study to the Massachusetts court stakeholders including the Chief Justice of the District Court, Register of Probate for the Probate & Family Court, court administrators and managers.
Impact
Our research demonstrated the impact of user-centricity, and led to the creation of a court committee dedicated to improving the UX of court services. Recommendations from our report are currently in the process of being implemented.
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