Do I really need to call someone about this?

weeknotes

Dec 30

Happy one month of Weeknotes! Nothing major here, just Christmas, 2024 incoming etc. I struggled a bit to post this week, but I realise that progress > perfection. Looking ahead, I want to make an active effort to better my writing voice. I'm conscious that I don't 'write like how I speak' as much as I'd like, so here's to trying harder 💪

Week in a nutshell

Spent my solo Christmas (spoiler alert: it was lame)
Learning to take it one day at a time (burnout relief)
Thesis planning (overwhelmed, excited, jarring)
Rediscovering cooking (where has my muscle memory gone?)
Goal setting for the new year (building systems > goals)
Slow fashion times (thrifting and reselling has become my new pastime)

Picking up the phone call in a digital era...

I've been off all week, so no updates work-wise. Thing is, as a designer, you often find yourself in the shoes of a user (of services). My recent life admin duties took me to HMRC, where I found that I owed money in the last tax year. Long story short, I'm past the deadline to appeal so my last resort is to call to dispute... which I’ve been putting off for quite some time.

The amazing gift of digital government is convenience. Imagine being able to 'file your taxes' — the mundane, unexciting task that comes for us all — with the flexibility of clicks and scrolls you could do with your eyes closed. This is the citizen-centred dream come true, right here in the UK (Government 5.0).

Story time. Before I left Hong Kong for good in 2022, I was told by my ex-employer I had to visit the tax department to make sure that everything was paid. I ended up spending an entire day in queues, filling out X paper forms and sitting around with an empty stomach before I was told that I didn't even earn enough in the year to reach the minimum tax threshold.

Not that I'm an anti-people — I do believe that in instances like a delayed tax appeal (to no fault but my own) are best served by people, to people. Tasks that demand flexibility and autonomy (i.e. booking an appointment) should absolutely be served digitally. But in bigger and complex services — with unpredictable situations, nuanced possibilities — a phone call might just be your quickest resolution. For now, at least. In an ideal service, unpredictability and nuance should be consistently designed out.

A lot of the time, I hear people being frustrated with websites and bots — when all they want to do is speak to a human — but what I’m actually hearing is in fact, a badly designed service (or one that lacks user-centricity). If you have to resort to speaking to someone (or go beyond the service), you clearly have a problem left unresolved by the service intended for that purpose. And digital doesn’t mean you’re not dealing with people. In fact, you’re likely dealing with the people that put your needs above all, which is exactly what designers champion.

Perhaps that’s why ChatGPT is so popular these days. We crave experiences that are responsive, intuitive and fluid, like a Google search. Digital makes us lazy in a great way. Give it some time; when AI comes for CX I’ll never hear the same complaints again.