PROJECT NAME: USW Local 1998
ROLE: Service Designer/Researcher
DURATION: 4 Months (Jan 2022-May 2022)
Team Members: Evan Rees, Nem Brunell, Lauren Baek, Esi Aboagye, Carla Montgomery-Alexander
- USW Local 1998 is a local union that represents many of the University of Toronto’s technical and administrative workers.
More than 12,000 members in the casual unit group of varying occupations.
- Its casual unit is made up of over 3,500 members who work in paid positions ranging from childcare assistants to academic program coordinators, and most things in-between.
Breakdown of USW Local 1998 member groups.
INITIAL FINDINGS AND RESEARCH
To better establish an understanding of the key issues and pain points that members of USW face, our team developed an ‘As-Is’ empathy map using the brainstorming tool Miro. Elements our team had to consider while planning out research with USW Members included:
- ethical considerations (underrepresenting possible key user groups due to time constraints)
- main areas of communication (how are existing and new members contacted about their rights)
As-Is Journey Map
Based on these considerations, our team interviewed a variety of USW Local 1998 members, both casual and staff appointed, to determine possible pain points and created a 2 personas based off the feedback we received and created an 'As-Is' Journey Map to highlight specific user needs and pain points.
As-Is Experience Map depicting the journeys of two types of USW Members (Active vs. Uninformed) through the union.
HILLS
- 1. Casual Unit members can engage with the union in a way that is relevant to them and encourages them to invite other members to participate
- 2. Casual Unit members will be able to communicate using non-UofT emails and feel connected to their union
- 3. New and existing members are informed of their rights in the union and already know the stewards and staff they need to talk to if issues arise
Next Steps and Design Changes
How were members of the casual unit being communicated with? We found that many workers within UofT who were part of the union by default of being employed by UofT, were however unaware that they were part of the union as they never received Union newsletter emails. So, our team provided suggestions to draw more attention to the emails and newsletters and how cater the content to its readers.
Newsletter Title
The existing title of the newsletters was not immediately eye-catching to union members and the by-line and lack of explanation of the purpose of the email. We suggested including an eye-catching subject line such as 'Details for our latest fundraiser!'
Newsletter Header
The header of the newsletter does not currently give members any context as to the
- newsletter’s contents. If members that are unfamiliar with the union curiously open the newsletter, their first glance does not answer the question “Why am I getting this newsletter?” We suggested that since the About section of the website says “USW Local 1998 Represents over 7000 administrative and technical workers at the University of Toronto Schools," that incorporating this int the newsletter would help clarify the function and purpose of the union.
Newsletter Navigation
The current newsletter navigation collects the titles of each section uniquely per newsletter,
which reduces the ability for the newsletter to be skimmed by members who may be looking for a particular kind of content. Our team suggested they should create anchor links in navigation and categories for content to make content easier to scan
for in the navigation.
Newsletter Content
The example to the left is to show a suggested newsletter template with a header, content and link. Based on feedback collected from union members, ‘what the union does’ was seen as the highest category of what to include in the newsletter.
To-Be Journey Map
Based on the findings from our interviews with union members and the collected data distilled into our recommendations to the union on newsletter changes, our team created a ‘To-Be’ Experience Map to showcase the journeys of our two personas through the union when the changes have been implemented. This was meant to showcase the easing of the pain points from the design and service changes.
‘To-Be’ Journey Map depicting how suggested changes to the union services and newsletter would provide a more flowing and beneficial to union members.
CONCLUSION
- There are 12,000 members in the casual unit who feel neglected and underrepresented in the union…
- … But we hope our solution will help them become more engaged and involved!
- A revamped newsletter, increased access via email and onboarding documents will help improve the experience of the casual unit.
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