A User-Centered Architecture for E-Budgeting: Designing Role-Based Interfaces for Public Administration

Abstract

Public financial platforms often transfer inflexible manual processes directly into digital environments (a phenomenon termed "e-bureaucratism"), heightening cognitive strain and threatening adherence to intricate policies like Presidential Regulation No. 72 of 2025. Therefore, this study aims to design an official travel administration interface prototype accommodating strict bureaucratic workflows while preserving cognitive ergonomics. Employing the ISO 9241-210:2019 User-Centered Design (UCD) standard, the methodology encompassed analyzing user contexts via in-depth interviews with three key participants: one Head of Department, one Master Administrator, and one Department Administrator. Engaging these specific roles was critical to capture firsthand administrative constraints, ensuring the resulting interface accurately aligns with users' mental models to mitigate cognitive overload. This analysis guided the specification of functional requirements and design solutions, involving mapping hierarchical user flows and developing low-fidelity wireframes tailored for these actors. The results yield a role-based architecture enforcing functional isolation. Providing macro-level financial dashboards for central administrators and task-specific modules for departmental executors minimizes information overload. Additionally, structured user flows operationalize seamless integration by embedding statutory constraints like quotas and tariff validations into backend automation. This actively shields users from manual cross-referencing, aligning the interface with their mental models, and ensuring strict regulatory compliance without sacrificing operational efficiency.