Abu Dhabi Department of Education and Knowledge – Transformation towards paperless government services in the educational sector
The background:
The Abu Dhabi Department of Education and Knowledge (ADEK) supervises the entire education sector within the Emirate. They were unsatisfied with the excessive paperwork and time anyone participating in the sector had to face while addressing even the smallest issues or service requests.
We knew that to eliminate bureaucracy, it was essential to digitise the entire system.
The essence of the project:
Our project aimed to fulfil the various needs of the education system’s three distinct user groups: investors, parents, and employees. Initially, we researched to map and understand each group’s current education sector-related customer journeys and mapped the full customer activities throughout all the touchpoints. For instance, how a parent requests a service or submits a complaint about a school, how an investor chooses a location to build a new school, how an employee resolves a request by an ex-student, etc.
We identified pain points, areas of frustration or satisfaction, the most time-consuming processes, and opportunities for improvement. Once the complete picture was there, we moved on to the next phase: streamlining and enhancing these journeys.
Let’s begin with the investors. We noticed that accessing the right information on establishing a school varied across districts, with some facing difficulties and others suffering from an extremely time-consuming and bureaucratic process. And even though the government had grants for the land in some areas, in some cases, investors needed to ask for such options!
Our goal was to replace the existing system with a digital platform that would deliver a world-class experience and be the opposite of what people were used to getting from the government. We wanted to get rid of the endless old-school forms and physical signatures. So, we proposed to develop a digital platform similar to Messenger – something that most users are very familiar with. And they loved the idea! With just a few clicks, investors can select a school location and access a map featuring available land plots, investment opportunities, benefits, and other crucial information.
Our second group consisted of parents who rarely visited the website, so we made it mobile-friendly with ease of use and intuitiveness in mind. Parents can now efficiently address issues related to their children online, replacing the previous use of paper forms, emails, and in-person meetings. This approach significantly reduced the paper trail associated with this sector. The platform also makes various requests into a seamless online process, such as requesting certificates and attestation documents or verifying a degree earned years ago.
The last, but certainly not the least, group consisted of education sector employees. Within this platform, they could swiftly communicate between the regulator and the schools, and employees could submit vacation requests, monitor school performance on certain KPIs, and track the status of complaints, whether they are open, resolved, or pending.
In essence, it functions as an intranet for work-related matters, consolidating essential services into a single, efficient magical platform: a one-stop solution for addressing various needs and challenges.
Services provided:
- Conducting customer behaviour research.
- Mapping customer journeys.
- Designing wireframes.
- Developing the platform.
- Crafting the UX/UI.
- Following the launch, we proceeded with the follow-up phase, introducing additional features to the platform.
- Providing post-launch support.
Project result:
Now, we can confidently say that streamlined and paperless government services are possible. The path ahead remains long, and more improvements are required. However, this modern, user-friendly, versatile platform represents a positive step in the right direction.
Before it was available, investors could spend more than a year to clear all the permissions. Now, this timeline is just 1-2 months. Similar things can be said about parents and employees. Tasks that once consumed many hours can now be completed with a few simple clicks online.
