Citizen Resilience & Support Portal
A fictitious, non-commercial UX project created for learning purposes.
Reimagining digital services through an empathetic AI-assisted experience that helps citizens handle administrative tasks with confidence and clarity.
Link to prototype:
The Product
The Citizen Resilience & Support Portal streamlines post-death administrative tasks into one guided, AI-assisted journey. Designed for citizens under emotional stress, it provides clear next steps, secure data retrieval, and calm, task-focused guidance. The experience reduces cognitive load, improves cross-agency clarity, and supports citizens in completing essential actions with confidence.
Focus Areas
Content Design & Microcopy, Information Architecture, Interaction Design, AI Experience Design, Cognitive Load Reduction
Role
Sole UX/UI Designer (end-to-end product thinking, UX strategy, content design, wireframing, UX writing, interaction design, prototyping)
Project Duration
5 days
Process
Defined assumptions, user needs, and service gaps
Mapped tasks, flows and design opportunities
Prioritised key features
Designed high-fidelity prototype
Added AI guidance with clear, empathetic prompts
Reflected on opportunities for future validation and expansion
(No research or usability testing conducted due to the nature of the project.)
Summary
In moments of loss, even simple administrative tasks can feel overwhelming. This project enhances Singapore’s digital services with AI-assisted guidance to help citizens manage post-funeral administrative processes with empathy, clarity, and confidence.
Rather than functioning as a fully autonomous system, the AI co-pilot acts as an intelligent support tool. It offers step-by-step support, securely pre-filling information through Singpass/MyInfo integration, and suggests relevant next steps based on each user’s situation.
The result is a calm, human-centred experience that blends the efficiency of digital automation with the reassurance of thoughtful design, reducing cognitive load during one of life’s most difficult transitions.
Losing a loved one is emotionally devastating, yet families must manage complex administrative and financial tasks quickly such as death registration, updating government records (CPF, housing, social services), notifying banks and insurance companies, and transferring property ownership. In Singapore, while these processes exist across multiple government and financial institution websites, they remain fragmented and difficult to navigate during a period of grief and mental fatigue.
Problem Statement
User Problems
Unsure where to begin or what needs to be done first
Information overload during emotional stress
Overwhelmed by multiple agencies and unclear instructions
Fear of making mistakes in formal applications
Difficulty tracking documents, deadlines, or requirements
Lack of consolidated guidance; forced to visit multiple websites
Need personalised, step-by-step guidance rather than generic information
Business Problems
Citizens missing critical steps, resulting in rework from incomplete or delayed documentation
Fragmented cross-agency workflows, lack of centralised coordination across agencies
Lack of scalable, personalised support
Citizens perceive government processes as complicated and unempathetic
Singapore citizens are generally tech-comfortable, but major life events, especially bereavement, create emotional and cognitive load that make it difficult to navigate fragmented government services. A single, guided government portal that embeds a smart AI Assistant to guide citizens through the post-funeral administrative journey could significantly reduce stress and errors.
The Assumption
How might we provide a calm, guided, and emotionally appropriate experience that helps citizens complete essential steps confidently, reduces cognitive load while improving cross-agency clarity and service efficiency in one coherent place?
Design Challenge
Design an intelligent AI assisted web portal that helps bereaved family members in Singapore navigate and complete essential post-funeral administrative tasks. The experience should feel emotionally supportive, task-oriented, and easy to follow. It should minimise confusion while respecting the sensitivity of the user’s state of mind.
As a family member handling my late father’s affairs and who is grieving, I want to know exactly what I need to do, in what order, and how to do it, so that I can take care of everything correctly without feeling lost or overwhelmed.
User Story
If we design an intelligent AI-assisted portal that consolidates and organises all post-death administrative tasks into one step-by-step guided experience, citizens will complete them more accurately and with less stress, improving overall trust and satisfaction with government digital services.
Hypothesis
Target Persona
Name: Sarah
Age: 42
Situation: Recently lost her father and is managing his affairs while caring for her mother.
Tech comfort: Moderate
Goals: Wants to complete all administrative tasks efficiently, minimise stress and feel in control
Pain points: Emotional strain, difficulty tracking steps, fragmented online processes
Values: Clarity, empathy, minimal reading, simple UI
Must Haves
Step-by-step guidance
AI Resilience Assistant (task-focused, situational tone)
Task overview
Progress marker
Data integration for auto-retrieval and auto-fill
Save progress feature
Secure verification (Singpass)
Multi-language options
Key Features
Should Haves
Onboarding questions to personalise tasks
Lightweight emotional support phrasing
Document checklist
Form-based task scheduler
Time estimates
Task reminders via notification
Pain Points and
Design Opportunities
Pain point: Unsure which website to go.
Design opportunity: Create a single guided experience that reduces friction between multiple websites.
Pain point: Confused at what to do first.
Design opportunity: Use AI to simplify decision-making and prioritise task.
Pain point: Need emotional reassurance.
Design opportunity: Introduce empathetic UX writing to make cold administrative tasks feel human. AI tone variation is calm, grounded and task-focused.
Pain point: Overwhelmed and can’t process large paragraphs.
Design opportunity: Use task block cards and progressive disclosure.
Pain point: Form filling feels endless.
Design opportunity: Retrieve information and auto-fill wherever possible and prompt confirmation.
Pain point: Hard to track task, deadlines, and documents.
Design opportunity: Create document checklist and task scheduler.
Pain point: Cross-website hopping.
Design opportunity: Centralised information architecture.
Pain point: Pausing mid-way/returning later.
Design opportunity: Save progress and AI reassurance.
Home
Login
Onboarding
Personalised task overview
Task category
Task detail
AI guidance
Form input and info retrieval
Progress marker
Next steps
Document checklist and task scheduler
Logout
Proposed User Flow
Role of the AI co-pilot
Guides citizens through all post-funeral administrative tasks
Helps prioritise, schedule and pre-fill forms where possible
Provides reminders and empathetic prompts
Balances automation with user control
Builds trust and reduces stress
design Decisions
AI Assistant Voice and Tone Guide
Calm, clear and concise
Practical
Task-oriented
Neutral but not clinical
Encourage but not overly warm
Informative but not advisory
Respectful of user’s mental bandwidth
AI Shoulds
Give the next best step, reducing decision load
Clarify what’s needed, why, and how long it takes
Reassure that progress is saved
AI Should Nots
Provide emotional validation like a therapist
Offer opinions
Sound overly cheerful
High-fidelity prototype
Lightweight, calming UI: Soft colours and generous whitespace.
Short, simple onboarding: Only essential questions are asked.
Neutral, empathetic plain-language microcopy.
AI Resilience Assistant: Uses a neutral, grounded tone focused on task completion and avoids over-interjecting to maintain user autonomy.
Reduced decision points on each page: Essential tasks are prioritised clearly.
Task block cards instead of long pages: Chunked steps reduce cognitive load and lets users to tackle one thing at a time.
Security is emphasised and reiterated where needed.
Time estimates and purpose notes: Help citizens understand why each step matters and prevents errors.
Progressive disclosure: Keep screens visually calm by revealing details only when needed.
AI-assisted form filling: Information is retrieved and auto-filled where applicable.
AI-assisted form filling: Clear prompts for users to verify details.
Progress marker: A green check mark appears for sections that are fully completed
Document previews: Hovering over a section highlights the documents potentially required.
Document checklist and task scheduler: Helps users stay organised and prepared.
Drop-down selections for scheduling: Reduces cognitive load by allowing users to select pre-defined tasks and agencies.
Task confirmation card: Newly added tasks appear in a concise card format.
Toast notifications: Inform users of upcoming tasks.
Logout experience: The AI confirms that progress has been saved and users can return at any time.
Final Screens
Reflections
This project taught me how critical cognitive load reduction is when designing for stressful contexts. The challenge was balancing minimal information with the need for completeness across legal, financial and documentation tasks.
I learned the value of:
Plain language and clear microcopy
Progressive disclosure
Designing with onboarding and empty states in mind
Ensuring AI supports rather than overwhelms
Structuring cross-agency flows in a way that feels coherent to users
This project also clarified that I enjoy UX strategy, content design and systems thinking slightly more than heavy UI or component work.
Moving Forward
Conduct user interviews with citizens who have recently handled major life events
Expand flows to additional life events
Prototype mobile version
Test AI tone with real scenarios