Case 2: Electronic Approval System EASY
The "Electronic Approval System EASY" (hereinafter referred to as "EASY") is a service for electronically approving, organizing, storing, transferring, or disposing of administrative documents. It was launched in 2009 with the aim of building and stably operating a system that contributes to the proper implementation of official document management throughout the government, the improvement of convenience in administrative procedures, and the efficiency of business operations in government officials. It has electronic approval and document management functions that can manage and record decision making processes, and is used by approximately 450,000 employees working in various ministries and agencies. Through continuous improvement, we are developing a new system common to the government for the digitalisation of administrative documents, aiming to realize more reliable and efficient document management.
Contents
- [Issue 1] Requests for improvement of functions and operability were raised from officials of ministries and agencies.
- Solution point 1: Users and human-centered design experts conduct research from two perspectives
- Solution Point 2: User Interviews from the User's Perspective
- Solution Point 3: Usability Evaluation from an Expert Perspective
- Solution point 4 Improve accuracy by narrowing down the points to be improved through the prototype verification meeting
- Solution #5 Intuitive screen design to help you navigate without getting lost
- [Issue 2] It was required to be able to continue to use smoothly even in an organization with many transfers
- Interview
- Related Pages
[Issue 1] Requests for improvement of functions and operability were raised from officials of ministries and agencies.
There is a basic principle called the "Act on the Management of Public Records and Archives" in the work related to administrative documents.
On the other hand, the functions to be used, the frequency of use, the scope of access, and the flow of operations differ depending on the government agency, department, and position.
Against this background, there were a wide range of requests for improvement from different perspectives, such as "inconvenience in creating draft documents," "complexity in setting approval routes," "difficulty in seeing the screen when confirming draft content," and "difficulty in understanding the progress of approval routes."
Solution point 1: Users and human-centered design experts conduct research from two perspectives
In order to make improvements, we identified the requests for improvement that had already been identified, grasped the overall picture of the problems that the service had at that time, and identified the scope of the investigation target. Based on the results, we conducted user interviews with officials of the Cabinet Office and ministries and agencies to extract issues from the user's perspective. At the same time, human-centered design (* 1) experts also extracted general usability issues, analyzed the severity of each issue through "user interviews" and "usability evaluation," and formulated an improvement policy [Figure 1].
In the user interviews, the users of the service at that time were broadly classified into "Drafter / Approver," "Document Manager," "General Document Manager," and "Reviewer / Reviewer (Cabinet Office / National Archives of Japan)." In addition, the main screens for Drafter / Approver, which had a large number of users, and Administrative Document File Management and Record Schedule (* 2) / Transfer / Disposal Services, which were found to have many issues, were selected. Interviews were conducted with each user, and the results were analyzed to identify issues and derive improvement policies.
* 1 Human-centered design: Focusing on users who use information systems, the process of clarifying users' environments, users' goals and tasks, and designing in accordance with them. An international standard has been developed as JIS Z 8530:2021 (a revised standard of ISO 9241-210:2019).
* 2 Record schedule: With regard to administrative document files, etc., whether to transfer them to the National Archives of Japan, etc. or to dispose of them when the retention period expires shall be determined in advance at the earliest possible time before the expiration of the retention period.
Solution Point 2: User Interviews from the User's Perspective
In the user interviews, we organized and analyzed the statements made by the officials of the Cabinet Office and ministries and agencies to find out the essential problems, and defined and analyzed the issues. In order to efficiently obtain effective opinions, we narrowed down the interviewees to five or six people who are familiar with each of the following operations: "Drafting and approval operations," "Administrative document file management operations," and "Operations such as confirmation and examination of record scheduling, transfer and disposal."
In this process, we interviewed the system at that time, classified and organized the flow of operations for each operation unit, visualized the severity based on the evaluation of events and problems in each flow, and identified points for improvement (Figure 2).
Solution Point 3: Usability Evaluation from an Expert Perspective
In the usability evaluation, based on the "Ten Principles of Usability," which are considered to be general indicators, the evaluation was carried out in light of the empirical rules of human-centered design experts, and issues related to the usability of the system at that time were extracted ([Figure 3] was replaced with text when the HTML version was created).
By classifying the evaluation results into 10 principles, it became possible to grasp the trend of issues to be improved and to take measures for the system as a whole. In addition, the results of this usability evaluation played an important role in advancing the interview and improving the accuracy of the hypothesis of the question.
Ten Principles of Usability
- Know the state of the system
- Suit the actual use environment
- Give users control and freedom of action
- Be consistent and follow standards
- Prevent errors
- You can see it just by looking at it without having to recall the memory.
- Provide flexibility and efficiency
- Make minimal and beautifully designed
- Can recognize, diagnose, and recover from errors
- Providing Help and Documentation
Reference Nielsen Norman Group. "10 usability heuristics for user interface design". 2024-01-30 (Reference 2025-03-04))
Solution point 4 Improve accuracy by narrowing down the points to be improved through the prototype verification meeting
A prototype screen was created based on the issues derived from the research so far, and in order to evaluate the usability of the screen, a verification meeting of the prototype screen was held with officials from more than 10 ministries and agencies, which are the main users.
In order to closely check whether the requests for improvement made by the officials of the Cabinet Office and each Ministry were being met, the Study Group identified from the opinions and questions it had received, "Problems that cross the Cabinet Office and each Ministry," "Problems that are difficult to solve only by operating the system," and "Problems that affect operating efficiency," and narrowed down the areas that needed to be improved. Based on the results, the screen design was reviewed and adjusted in a balanced manner so that there was no bias in response to the requests for improvement made by each Cabinet Office and each Ministry. This process was repeated twice to increase the accuracy of the improvements.
The verification meeting also aims to build consensus by communicating with the staff of the relevant ministries and agencies at the same time. We also distribute a draft of the prototype screen to the ministries and agencies that were unable to participate in the meeting to follow up on the meeting.
Solution #5 Intuitive screen design to help you navigate without getting lost
One of the requests for improvement made by the employees of the Cabinet Office and Ministries and Agencies, who were the users of the system, was "I would like to have a system in which I can understand the current stage and who is the next decision-maker in the overall decision-making process."
Based on this request for improvement, the approval route display screen was designed [Fig. 4] to display the overall flow of approval, the progress of approval, and the next approver in an intuitive and easy-to-understand route format. In addition, a function to add approvers with a simple operation was added.
[Issue 2] It was required to be able to continue to use smoothly even in an organization with many transfers
It is common for ministries and agencies that use EASY to make personnel changes around two to three years.
As a result, there were concerns that users would continue to use the service for the first time, that there would be individual differences in the level of understanding of the service, and that it would be time-consuming to take over the service.
Therefore, from a medium - to long-term perspective, we promoted the creation of a system that maintains high quality so that it is easy for anyone to use and can be used smoothly even when users change.
Solution Point 1: Provide training for learning how to operate EASY and an operating environment for practicing
EASY is a service that is limited to government employees, which means that it provides a direct connection to users, unlike other services for the general public.
Taking note of this characteristic, NTT Communications, in cooperation with Cabinet Office, actively conducts training for officials of the Cabinet Office and each Ministry, providing detailed explanations on everything from the rules for managing official documents to the specific operating methods of EASY, in order to support their understanding and smooth use of the service. NTT Communications also provides an operating environment that can be freely used at any time by officials of the Cabinet Office and each Ministry who wish to learn how to operate EASY.
Solution Point 2 Design guidelines to ensure continued ease of use
No matter how ingenious a service is, it will need to be adjusted and improved over time. If the design policy of the screen and experience that the user touches changes, sustainable usability cannot be guaranteed.
Therefore, we created a design guideline (Figure 5) that summarizes the design principles to be followed. The design guideline clearly defines the design principles of the EASY screen and experience, such as "based on rules such as specified colors and character shapes," "making it possible for staff who are unfamiliar with the service to operate it," and "considering the case of using it for a long time," to ensure sustainable usability.
Solution Point 3: Using the Policy Dashboard to Monitor Service Usage Data
In order to continue to provide high usability and convenience to users, we are making effective use of the "Policy Dashboard" (Figure 5), which collects and releases policy-related data, allowing us to observe the number of users, the number of log-ins, the number of administrative document files in possession, the number of approvals, the rate of computerization, etc., for each government agency and for the overall total.
The policy dashboard is used for various purposes, such as "checking the rate of increase in usage over time and using it as material for future system expansion plans" and "checking usage during busy periods and preparing for operation and maintenance and help desk movements".
In the past, we used spreadsheet software to roughly understand that the peak season for official document approval was the end of the fiscal year and the beginning of the fiscal year, but we could not analyze detailed movements. However, since we started to use the Policy Dashboard, we have been able to visually and clearly check the trends in graphs and other materials, making it possible to analyze the movements of each ministry and agency in detail. For example, while many ministries and agencies saw an increase in usage in March and April, National Tax Agency saw more usage in June and July than in March and April, and the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare saw more usage in October, making it easier to understand these trends.
