Revamping APSC (Assam Public Sector Commission) website: Clarity for Assam’s Aspirants

Some time back, I had applied for a vacancy for a position with the Government of Assam. From the moment of identifying and viewing the advertisement notice, applying for the position, scouting daily for updates on my application, receiving my admit card to result notification; I had been almost a regular visitor of the APSC website. Having said that, APSC (Assam Public Service Commission) is a Government body of the state of Assam, responsible for conducting civil service examination and other government recruitments in Assam, and its only digital platform is a website, which serves a critical role in disseminating these recruitment information related to advertisements, updates, notifications etc.

But every time I visited the APSC website, I couldn't help but notice some shortcomings of this website, sometimes related to its usability, accessibility and sometimes related to its interface, the visual design aspect of it. Cluttered view of the homepage, its non-responsiveness while trying to access the website on a mobile phone, too much of movement going around under different tabs in the homepage in the form of scrolling tickers leaving the user confused and lost — these are to state a few.

A look at the existing website —

So, I asked a simple question : How would I have redesigned this platform?

So let’s have a look at the existing website and analyze the issues associated with it.

When I began analyzing the Assam Public Service Commission (APSC) website to find a design solution, I knew I wasn’t just designing for a screen. I was designing for thousands of lives navigating one of the most crucial gateways to public service in Assam. So, I started with:

Who are these people using this website, and what are their expectations? Are they facing any issue? Are their expectations met?

Depending upon the variety of users of this website, I categorized these people into 4 different types based on their demographic profile, their motive behind using the platform and the devices they use to access the platform. The aspirants of CEE, the government job seekers, the in-service government employee and a regular information seeker.

I formulated a questionnaire and conducted interviews to understand the users, their experiences of using the apsc website, their needs, expectations, pain points etc.

As I stepped into these users’ shoes, a pattern emerged. They all want the same thing:

clarity, accessibility, and a user-friendly website to work for them, not against them.

After reviewing the data, I could pull a significant amount of insights. In order to make sense of it all, I created the diagram a shown below and grouped the findings under 6 categories.

For instance, if we have a look at the homepage of the website, one could easily notice the flaws:

Now, let us try and interpret the findings using UX laws

1. Hick’s Law: Overwhelming number of choices slow down decision-making.

The homepage displays too many links, notices, and categories all at once. Important actions (e.g., Apply Online, Download Admit Card, Check Results) are not clearly prioritized. Users — especially first-time candidates — experience choice overload, which slows down their ability to find the right action quickly.They spend extra time scanning the cluttered homepage. This increases frustration, particularly for users with low digital literacy or limited internet access.

2. Fitts’s Law: Small, closely spaced links make navigation difficult

The homepage contains long lists of closely packed, click-target notifications in small, text-heavy hyperlinks.This increases the likelihood of mis-clicks, directly violating Fitts’s Law.

3. Miller’s Law: Too much info during onboarding causes cognitive load.

On the APSC website, notifications are stacked in long lists without grouping by exam type, date, or importance. Critical tasks (like applying for a post, downloading admit cards, or checking results) are buried among numerous unrelated links. The lack of visual distinction between high-priority and low-priority content forces users to scan everything, overwhelming their short-term memory. This violates Miller’s Law, as users cannot effectively process or prioritize such a dense volume of information in a single glance.

4. Law of Prägnanz: Forms are dense and visually unbalanced.

The lack of visual hierarchy (icons, spacing, or grouping) forces users to manually scan long lists of links to find what they need, instead of instantly perceiving a simple structure.

To understand the issues and learn from other similar portals providing similar services, I conducted secondary research and a comparative analysis of the APSC website (www.apsc.nic.in) with similar platforms, other state-level Public Service Commissions (PSCs) in India. The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) also serves as a benchmark for all PSCs.

Now let’s dive into the design process. From the research findings, I formulated a design guidelines.

A little bit of mood boarding to gather thoughts on colour, typeface, pattern etc.

The visual design aspects shall be based on a minimal yet attractive and contrasting colour palette for better usability and navigation. My idea is to keep everything clean, clear and crisp.

The initial concepts included ideas of nesting of different sections, the layout, navigation style etc. Side-by-side i also worked on the website architecture, as certain things like clarity, finding information easily, easy accessibility were on priority. I refined the concepts an created wireframes of the homepage, the pages associated with the application process up till the payment stage. For instance, below is the wireframe of the redesigned homepage for APSC.

The redesigned website maintains all original content including the Assamese text (সখিয়তী), government logos, and essential services while making it significantly more accessible and user-friendly. The layout includes features like a language change option, accessible form controls, and improved visual hierarchy.

The final Hi-fidelity mock-ups —

Hi-fidelity mockup of the home page.

Account creation section —

Pages associated with applying to an advertisement-

Future Scope -

I understand that when it comes to design of any sort, there is always a scope for improvement. In the future we can look at smarter ways to allow notifications regarding specific types of vacancies, smarter ways of monitoring application status etc.

Thank you!