Making Income Verification Work for the Gig Economy

The Income Passport project was initiated to address the intricate challenges faced by gig and 1099 workers in verifying their income. The aim was to audit and enhance the existing web app, ensuring that it effectively serves its purpose of simplifying the income verification process for non-standard workers, thereby allowing them easier access to vital public benefits and financial services.

Client
SteadyIQ
Industry
FinTech
B2C
Product type
Mobile App
Web app
Role
Lead designer
Making Income Verification Work for the Gig Economy

What we did

Audited and redesigned Steady's income verification flow for gig workers — cutting drop-offs and getting more users through to the benefits they qualified for.

Core Problems

  • Complex Verification: Gig and 1099 workers faced cumbersome paperwork and lengthy processing times to prove eligibility for benefits, leading to potential underfunding or ineligibility.
  • Administrative Burden: The manual verification process was not only time-consuming for the workers but also resulted in significant administrative costs for states, increasing the risk of benefits fraud.

Research and analysis

In-depth collaboration with stakeholders, including gig workers and government officials, provided valuable insights into the challenges and requirements. This collaborative approach ensured that the solution was built with the end-user in mind, leading to a more effective and user-centric design.

Designing solutions

The project involved a comprehensive audit of the existing app, followed by a strategic redesign to enhance its functionality and user experience. Key tasks included creating user personas, designing user flows, wireframing, and prototyping, all aimed at making the app more intuitive and accessible.

Implementation and results

The optimizations to the Income Passport has had a profound impact, enabling gig and 1099 workers to seamlessly prove eligibility for government benefits. The app has facilitated a more efficient and accurate income verification process, benefiting both workers and government agencies.

Solution

Various optimizations made to Steady's Income Passport generated smoother user flow and better user engagement significanlty diminishing drop offs.

Conlusion

The Income Passport project by Steady represents a significant leap forward in supporting the gig economy workforce. By leveraging technology to address the unique challenges faced by non-standard workers, Steady has contributed to creating a more inclusive and equitable system for income verification and access to public benefits.

Reviews

Deep in the trenches with our partners.

★★★★★

I had the pleasure of working with Gytis for a long time, and he has consistently been one of the most thoughtful and dependable product designers I’ve worked with.

Gytis thinks deeply about the product, the user, and the business context behind every design decision. He is very strong at turning ambiguous ideas into clear, polished, usable experiences, and he brings a high level of taste and discipline to the work.

Gytis is someone I could trust with important product problems. He communicates clearly, takes feedback well, and has a calm, mature way of moving projects forward even when the direction is still evolving. That combination of creativity, judgment, and ownership made him a real partner to the product team!

Mike Chen

CEO

·

Cohere Commerce

★★★★★

"I came to Gytis looking for web designer. What I quickly realized is that Gytis's approach to design is to thoroughly immerse himself in the study of a client's company and then construct an information architecture which accurately and directly accomplishes the most important goals for the business. I have worked with all kinds of designers and creatives in the past, and Gytis stands head and shoulders above them all.”

Clay Spence

CEO

·

Nimbus Health

★★★★★

"Gytis consistently demonstrated strong design skills, professionalism, and a great ability to collaborate smoothly with both the team and customer. His work left a very positive impression on our customers, and communication throughout the projects was always easy and constructive. I’d recommend him as a reliable and experienced designer."

Renata Šulekauskė

General Manager

·

Miles Lithuania

★★★★★

"Gytis Mark has highly talented and motivated product designers. We worked together for a year with them collaborating on multiple projects during this time. Gytis Mark consistently built visually stunning designs while also paying attention to the user experience. Their attention to detail and intuitive designs resonated positively with our clients. They were open to feedback and incorporated them into his designs rapidly, which helped us to refine our product experience."

Kensen John

Engineering Lead

·

Tailwind App

★★★★★

"It was an absolute pleasure working with the Gytis Mark on our web and mobile application analysis and design. The team displayed great talents in the user experience field while they worked with us. It's not just their technical skills that impress me, however. It is also their amazingly positive attitude that made it a joy to work together. I recommend working with the Gytis Mark without any doubt."

Diego Dal Cero

CEO

·

Evenfi

★★★★★

"We cannot recommend Gytis Mark more highly. Their designs for our LPGA Tournament turned out better than we could have asked for and our client said it's the best-looking site on the Professional Tour. Their attention to detail, ability to hit deadlines and wonderful communication made them a pleasure to work with. We would be lucky to work with them again!"

Heather Lynch

Project Manager

·

DyrectLync

★★★★★

"The earliest stage of company building is absolutely foundational to ensure long-term success -- despite technically being an external contractors, Gytis's team was deep in the trenches with us, driving impact, understanding complex issues, and creating elegant UX solutions. We are extremely grateful for their thoughtfulness, positive attitude, and care. We know they can drive organizational impact."

Eric Heimark

CEO

·

Fast-Growing Stealth Startup

★★★★★

"Gytis Mark joined the project at a very early stage with no previous knowledge of the industry. They were able to grasp complex ideas quickly and provide valuable product development ideas from the get go. They had a clear and transparent process and kept us well informed. He took full ownership of the project taking in from idea to product from 0 - 1.”

Lorenzo Foglianti

CTO

·

Private equity startup

★★★★★

“Gytis Mark worked with my startup, Lifeplanner, for over a year focusing on product design, UX design and communication. Their team is extremely professional in what they do. They researched our industry, building a true understanding of the business, its customers, competitors and stakeholders. They are also open-minded and likable - a true team players who know when to lean back and listen and when to challenge. We are very satisfied with our collaboration and with Gytis Mark team's deliveries.”

Kathleen Meling

CTO

·

Lifeplanner

★★★★★

"Working with Gytis on defense-sector projects at BPTI was a strong experience. He brought a level of design thinking and professionalism that isn't easy to find in a domain as specific and demanding as ours. He picked up the context quickly, asked the right questions, and delivered work that was both thoughtful and practical. I'd recommend him without hesitation."

Simonas Dapkus

Defense programme manager

·

BPTI

★★★★★

"We've worked with Gytis Mark across a number of projects and what stands out every time is the genuine care they bring to the work. They put real time and research into each brief, considering every angle before settling on a direction, and he never approaches a project on autopilot. They listen properly, get under the skin of what the client actually needs, and delivers great design that does the strategic job it's meant to. I'd recommend Gytis Mark without hesitation to anyone looking for a designers who treat their work like it's their own."

Roxy Crouch

Co-founder

·

Growthmode

Projects

Other problems we've already solved.

BBright
Education
Web app

Product Design for an AI Math Learning Platform Used by 40,000 Lithuanian Students

Improved the student learning experience, the teacher environment, the Protau reporting module, admin flows, the landing page, and the design system. We handled both new feature design and fixing existing problems as they came up.

Read full case study →
No items found.
Cohere Commerce
B2B
E-commerse

Two-Year Design Partnership for a B2B Retail Intelligence Platform

Led the complete redesign of the platform twice across all user types (retailer, vendor, VC, enterprise retailer), managed an in-house designer, contributed to product strategy and roadmapping, and designed marketing sites and supporting materials alongside the core product work.

Read full case study →
No items found.
Mintra
B2B
Web app

Designing an E-Learning and Assessment Platform for the Maritime Industry

Designed the question bank management system, the assessment and questionnaire builder, the Crew Evaluation Test (CES), the proctoring and exam authentication feature, course reporting, and the student-facing test interface — across both admin and learner experiences.

Read full case study →
No items found.
Wisys
B2B
MVP

Rebuilding a Shipping Desktop App for Warehouse Teams and Shipping Clerks

Designed the complete new UI covering small package shipping (UPS, FedEx, USPS), TMS freight via Worldwide Express, international workflows, and standalone mode.

Read full case study →
No items found.
View all projects →

✦ Start with a conversation ✦

Book your intro call now

20 minutes. No pitch. We'll tell you honestly if we're the right fit.

✦ Your Product is Drifting ✦

Your product deserves to look as good shipped as it does in Figma.

Hire a designer and a Head of Design in 48 hours and start fixing what matters this week.

Book a call now