As a practical part of my research work, I decided to create a prototype application for fast and convenient communication with government services. I myself often need to contact the state here in Austria, and I can’t say that it’s very easy and user friendly. Plus, it would be interesting for me to check next semester, when I will finalize the concept, how people around me will evaluate it, whether they will find this application a good example of meaningful application of high technology or not.
There are quite a few examples of this kind of applications in the world, e-government is gradually becoming a trend. Austria also has such an app, but I was not able to try it out because it requires a fingerprint scan or Face ID, which actually surprised me, because in German-speaking countries personal data protection is a very big topic, and here a government app is asking me for my biometrics so directly.
Anyway, as a reference, I took a few apps I found on the internet as a reference, and also turned to my own experience of “What would I want to change? What service would I want to make easier? What is better organized in my country? What is better organized in Austria?”
Bringing together my personal wishes and experiences and already available examples, I started to develop a rough prototype. First of all, I wrote out for myself what services I would like to see in the app. Then various features that would help in better navigating all the features of the app. And of course UX UI, so that the user would not be confused.
At this stage, the app certainly looks raw in terms of design, but I hope to improve it in the next semester.
