Public Benefits Discovery and Access Experience for Tamil Nadu Citizens
OVERVIEW
A UX Challenge At The Scale of a State
CONTEXT
The Challenge?
In a state where most public schemes are technically “online,” digital accessibility still remained out of reach because interfaces weren't easy to navigate through.
Over 90 % of applications still relied on assisted e-Sevai centres. Fragmented portals, multiple logins, and unintuitive processes created friction and dependence.
How did we address it?
A Unified Schemes Portal for Citizens
A unified portal simplifying the discoverability and access of government schemes by turning the problem of not knowing which schemes you’re eligible for or how to apply into an interface that answers one simple question “What am I eligible for..... and how do I get it?”
A Schemes Dashboard for Administrators
TNeGA was building a platform to enable administrators to monitor benefit delivery in real time, to transform the vast amount of data into actionable visualizations based on KPIs that can help decision-makers identify coverage gaps, fund flows, and performance trends.
Together, these two experiences aimed to make public benefits delivery in Tamil Nadu accessible, accountable, and data-driven, bridging the gap between citizens seeking clarity and administrators seeking insight.
RESEARCH
Understanding the beneficiaries - the citizens
Understanding the government systems and stakeholders
KEY INSIGHTS
Multiple integrations → Redirections across different departmental portals → unintuitive, complicated application processes → users unclear about where to do what
Legacy government systems are poor at digital documentation → departments collect a lot of fragmented data for their schemes in different formats → data is not usable for governance
How might we make over 1,700+ government schemes easily discoverable, understandable and accessible for the citizens at one place?
THE SOLUTION
The Unified Schemes Portal
* WIP wireframes used for demonstration, project to be launched
Landing Page
multiple ways and entry points to know what you are eligible for
1. Login to view all potentially eligible schemes
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2. Use "know your schemes" tool (Q&A) to find relevant schemes
3. Browse schemes by categories or by gov. departments
Announcements
to stay up-to-date about new schemes and deadlines, without needing to browse through all schemes manually
Scheme Eligibility Discovery Flows
multiple ways (for different possible usecases) to know what you are eligible for
login → view suggested schemes for your profile
Personalized discovery can prevent information overload and make the experience feel more relevant & useful.
How to do it with the shortest userflow possible?
The state already had family and individual profile data from PDS (ration cards). Using the existing citizen’s profile data, the portal can instantly shortlist relevant schemes after Aadhaar-based login, creating the shortest possible path to awareness
View schemes for the selected profile
(me / others on my ration card)
Know Your Schemes Tool
for users who are not able to login or operators/ other people helping with finding schemes
Q&A - progressive step form
users answer a few simple questions, like their age, gender, income and the system automatically begins to build a personalized profile and displays relevant schemes
Dynamic schemes list
that updates as user adds more inputs
We also needed to identify the questions (the eligibility engine logic) - content for the form...
Activity: Designing the Most Efficient Survey (MES)
Identifying what is the minimum number of questions, in what order, for the most efficient results
THE PROCESS
→ mapped flagship schemes
→ identified overlaps
→ prioritized high-impact criteria
→ arranged questions (sequence) for fastest disqualification or eligibility confirmation
Scheme details page
