During research, we engaged 33 participants across Boston, Massachusetts; Phoenix and Tucson, Arizona; and Yonkers, New York. We spoke to people who have recently applied online for programs like Medicaid, SNAP, and Unemployment Insurance (UI). We also spoke with subject matter experts, including legal aid staff, and librarians who often assist folks in benefits access. These interviews were conducted with the support of CBOs, libraries, and non-profits who opened up their spaces to us.

We honed in on four key inquiry areas: access, consent, support, and trust.

• Access What accessibility challenges do beneficiaries face when navigating digital identity processes (e.g., account creation, authentication, and identity proofing) across different contexts, devices, and personal circumstances
• Consent How do beneficiaries experience choice, control, and transparency in digital identity systems?
• Support What support systems are available to enrollees and
  beneficiaries and how do they interact with them?
• Trust How do digital identity systems and/or external forces affect beneficiaries’ trust, agency, and experience accessing public benefits?

During interviews, we used design stimuli to aid our conversation. These included a journey map of benefits portal screens to visualize the account creation, log-in and, when relevant, identity proofing steps across Medicaid, SNAP, and UI for each state. This visualization helped jog participants’ memories and ground the conversation in specific features. From our interviews, we collected 700+ noteworthy data units, which we collected into a scrubbed and tagged research repository.