Transforming the Household Support Grant Application into a Digital Service
Replacing a print, fill, scan and upload process with a GDS-compliant digital application for residents of the London Borough of Hounslow.
A paper process that shut out the residents who needed it most
Situation
Residents had to download a form, fill it in by hand, then scan and upload it. Many said it took too long, and many had no printer or scanner at all, so applications stalled.
Task
Turn the paper form into a fully digital application that follows Hounslow's design system and the GDS "one question per page" pattern, grouping only related questions such as address or bank details.
Action
Interviewed current and prospective applicants, ran workshops with the internal grants team, and mapped the end-to-end journey, which stakeholders signed off before design began.
Result
An end-to-end prototype plus confirmation emails for residents and the council. Post-launch feedback described the new service as much faster and easier to use than the paper form.
Five stages, tested at every step
Listening to the grants team and the people applying
I ran workshops with internal stakeholders using open questions to surface the service's goals, then interviewed current and prospective applicants to find where the paper process broke down.
Stakeholder workshop questions
What residents told us
Who we were designing for
"Residents applying for financial support need a simple and accessible way to complete their application online, because the existing print, fill, scan and upload process creates unnecessary barriers and delays."
User journey map
The end-to-end resident journey across five stages, from awareness to outcome, reviewed and signed off by the Housing & Communities and Digital Transformation teams before design began.
Mapping every route through the service
In Miro, I mapped how a resident moves from finding a grant to submitting, including the paths where their grant isn't available.
How might we…
Lo-fi sketches
Hand-drawn screens covering every section of the application, from sign-in to declaration, following the order of the original paper form.
One question per page
Wireframes followed the GDS pattern so each screen asked one thing, with "Save and return later" for residents who couldn't finish in one sitting.
Lo-fi wireframes
Greyscale wireframes of all twelve screens, used to test structure and flow before any visual styling.
The building blocks behind every screen
One typeface, a purple-led palette and a small set of reusable components, taken directly from the hi-fi mock-ups and aligned with Hounslow's brand.
Typography
Inter throughout: a clear, highly legible sans-serif that works at small sizes on form-heavy screens.
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
0123456789 £ & ? !
Colour palette
Sampled from the hi-fi mock-ups, with contrast ratios against the text colour used on each.
#454545
#9F9F9F
#C6C6C6
#D8D8D8
#000000
#FFFFFF
Icons
A deliberately small set, so every icon has one clear meaning.
Components
Reusable pieces that make up all twelve screens.
| Assistance with | Why it is needed |
|---|---|
| Food | |
| Cooker |
Built on Hounslow's design system
Hi-fi mock-ups
The same twelve screens in Hounslow purple, using the type, colour and components above.
In context
Testing with seven applicants
Participants were prospective applicants and residents who had used the paper form and knew its drawbacks. We tested against five criteria, and each finding shaped a specific design change.
Looking back on the project
What I learned
One thing I'd do differently
I would bring analytics into the design process earlier.
While interviews and usability testing helped me understand residents' needs, having earlier access to application analytics would have helped me identify where residents were dropping out and prioritise improvements with greater confidence. In the next iteration, I would combine qualitative research with behavioural data from the beginning.
Faster, simpler, and open to everyone
After launch, residents reported that applying online was significantly more efficient and far easier than the paper form. Further testing and analytics surfaced more pain points to address in the next iteration.