Streamlining Payroll for 1.2M In-Home Care Providers

California Department of Social Services faced a challenge in 2021: how to help 1.2M IHSS providers easily and accurately record start/end times, locations, and hours worked for electronic payroll timesheets, while enabling county workers to efficiently validate data and reduce financial loss.

As Lead Product designer, I drove research, strategy, and design for a mobile app that guides users through check-in/out with secure location capture, offline support, and multilingual access. The app streamlined timesheet validation, improved accuracy, and eased county workers’ burden. Within months, it reached 96% adoption and saved the state $2.6M monthly - redefining in-home care management at scale.

Visit App Store

Visit Google Play

My Role - Lead UX Designer

Drove research, strategy, and UI design, improved workflows with a custom design process, mentored designers, and partnered across teams to deliver an accessible, scalable EVV solution for in-home care providers.

Timeline

June 2021 - Aug 2022

Key Deliverable

IHSS EVV Mobile App

Number of Users

1.2M

Monthly Payroll Processing

$2.6M

Challenge

Many of the end users are not tech-savvy, have limited time, and often face language or accessibility barriers. The existing process for logging work hours was manual, error-prone, and stressful - requiring providers to accurately recall and enter the exact time, location, and hours worked after their shift. This created:

Frequent timesheet errors
Rejected payrolls
Increased emotional and administrative burden

Results

I modernized California’s IHSS payroll system by designing a multilingual, offline-capable check-in/out app with real-time, location-based logging. The solution addressed privacy concerns with respectful prompts and eliminated memory-based errors, enabling automated, accurate payroll data entry—reducing manual validation and boosting statewide efficiency.

96%

Adoption rate

98%

Timesheet accuracy rate

50%

Reduced payroll processing time

Process

I created a “Customizable Design Sprint” process based on the Double Diamond model as a high-level guideline and tailored it for CMIPS digital services and products across platforms.

Impact Map: I started by drawing this Impact Map to visualize roadmaps and communicate how user outcomes relate to higher-level organizational goals. There are three use cases involved to meet the goal of increasing the efficiency of tracking the location and timing of services.

Empathy Map: I used Empathy Map based on the surveys and interviews with existing IHSS Electronic Services Portal end users to visualize their attitudes and behaviors regarding the EVV solution.

Customer Journey Map: With no comparable product, I mapped the existing IHSS portal journey using a persona to uncover pain points, guiding the team to identify key opportunities and shape a more user-centered product roadmap.

The Goals:

User Flows: I designed and iterated user flows for key features - Login, Check-In, and Check-Out - adding onboarding, location permissions, and edge case handling based on research insights and cross-functional feedback.

Wireframing: I created wireframes for key screens to refine user flows, incorporating layout, interaction, and design elements based on feedback from the team and user testing.

Prototyping & Visual Design: Delivered interactive prototypes for iOS and Android in four languages, along with detailed design specs cross-referenced with UI components for seamless developer handoff.