Designer Turns Personal Layoff Crisis Into Free Support Tool

The project emerged from a combination of necessity and professional curiosity. While navigating the bureaucratic maze of unemployment insurance, Medicaid, and financial aid for her daughter’s college, Cathey realized that many others were struggling with the same lack of clarity. She sought to demystify the process, specifically highlighting that severance packages do not necessarily disqualify individuals from receiving state benefits. By treating Claude as a cognitive partner, she successfully built the platform through a process she calls vibe-coding, drawing aesthetic inspiration from the utilitarian design of the UK government’s benefits website.

RIF Surfer currently operates as a free, searchable resource categorized by state, offering guidance on health coverage, food assistance, and mental health support. Although the project cost less than $100 to develop, Cathey views it as a vital community asset for those facing sudden professional displacement. While she plans to maintain the site as a free tool for users, she sees a potential future in licensing the platform to enterprise firms or outplacement agencies that wish to provide white-labeled support for their own departing employees.