Case studies
JULY 2021 – EXAM RESULTS HELPLINE, NATIONAL CAREERS SERVICE
(Education and Skills Funding Agency)
User research, Fran Evans
The brief
To help young people, parents and carers:
find information about next steps for students receiving their A level, BTEC and GCSE results,
to find advice and support, particularly for those that didn’t do as well as expected
Methodology
We conducted 7 moderated user interviews with GCSE and A-Level students as well as parents, to see if they could find out what to do once they had received their exam results.
We then carried out a thematic analysis to identify data patterns and created a report to summarise our findings.
Insights
There was one critical issue which we managed to mitigate before the website went live, and several moderate issues which were brought to the attention of the content and design team, iterated and tested by subsequent users before go live.
Additional moderate issues were brought to the attention of the team and added to the backlog.
Validation and engagement
The page performed really well in comparison with the previous year, and featured 11,917 user sessions. The campaign pages reduced the burden on the call centre – 50% sessions viewed down to the calls to action on the GCSE pages, and 51% clicks was on apprenticeships showing users had read the copy and were taking appropriate action.
Only 3.3% contacted the service despite the fact the phone number was on the page.
JANUARY 2021 - B3 LIVING
UX Design and User research, Fran Evans
The brief
To redesign the B3 Living website to ensure it reflects current user needs for tenants, homeowners, job-seekers and stakeholders.
Competitor Analysis and stakeholder workshops
I carried out a detailed competitor analysis and a series of stakeholder workshops to gain insights into how the website was currently to identify business needs and benchmarking before initial prototyping took place.
Card sorting
My next step was to look at the information architecture of the site, before prototyping could take place. I identified 4 potential testers for card sorting exercises and conducted remote card sorting via Trello boards to identify how users would organise key topics into categories. We discovered what terms were easily recognisable to tenants and which terms confused them. For instance all our sorters were confused by categorising community and neighborhood issues but they could sort repair related categories easily.
Prototyping
Once we had our categories, I started to prototype a few potential designs. We had engaged a design agency, Emerald Design, and liaised with them to narrow down a couple of designs before we could run an A/B test.
Guerilla testing
We recruited several tenants and homeowners to help us test the prototypes A and B. I drafted scripts of 2 key scenarios so we could analyse how users were engaging with the prototype and how easily they could find top level content. We also asked them to compare content with the current website.
Results
We discovered a mix of interest between prototypes A and B - there was a split between people who liked to go straight to the website and do what they came to do and others preferred to browse around for information.
All tenants were open to seeing content that was applicable to homeowners as well.
There was a strong interest in accessibility features.
Getting older was an important theme which they felt needed to be addressed
2/6 tenants weren’t sure what Oakray (main sub-contractor’s role was)
Many tenants had the B3 number stored in their phone and out of habit phones first as they couldn’t find information on the current website.
JUNE 2020 - SOLICITOR’S REGULATION AUTHORITY
UX and Content, Fran Evans
The brief
MySRA users include existing lawyers, trainees and also business managers and authorised signatories who need to complete various types of paperwork or admin for their firm.
One of the key elements we looked at was the admission journey (there are several ways to apply to be admitted as a solicitor), applying for a period of recognised training and obtaining a practising certificate. Other examples including submitting accounts, or applying for authorisation of a new firm.
Many website pages needed to be re-written due to the substantial changes in processes.
How we did it
We used people around the business to give us valuable insights including the contact centre, social media managers, technical experts and business change experts.
We ran some preliminary user tests on different user types on some prototype pages - we asked them for feedback on how they expected to log in, what type of searches they would do to find information as well as monitoring them to see how they managed to perform key tasks.
We found that due to the wide variety of tasks and different types of users, we would need to change a large number of pages around the website (over 100) with new content, links and signposting.
To ensure that all the new content we had written was correct and consistent it went through a series of checks and revisions by SMEs, external communications team and the contact centre.
Results
We successfully produced content for all the pages required, and using Planner we ensure they were approved and had input from all the necessary business channels in time for the project to launch. The project is now live on www.sra.org.uk and features many pages of content that we have written or revised with our UX and content principles in mind.
From paper to portal
Taking the pain out of complaining
MARCH 2019 - SOLICITORS REGULATION AUTHORITY
UX and Content, Fran Evans
There are over 1,000 complaints a month regarding problems and complaints against solicitors to the SRA.
Many of these issues need to be signposted to other regulators or bodies, whilst in many cases the customer can’t find the information or advice they need. The 2 main issues are:
A: they have no clear indication of whether their complaint can be dealt with by the SRA
B. they are unsure what the outcome will be, whether it will be sanctions for the person or company involved or some form of financial compensation.
Using Axure to mock up several prototypes, we produced an extensive ‘Report a Problem’ wizard to take the headache out of making a complaint, and provide an early indication of whether it was likely the SRA could help and what other information might be required.
When we ran user testing sessions we used some real-life test scenarios. These helped our testers put themselves in the mindset of the people who would be using the tool which was vital.
The majority of people who come to the SRA to complain are in a stressed state as they have lost money, have an issue with a property, will or other complex situation. This makes them less likely to be able to cope with complicated journeys and lots of reading as their mental load is already high.
We therefore came up with a simple but effective online journey which would guide users quickly towards help and advice relevant for their particular situation. This would pre-empt a lot of queries, set realistic expectations and reduce the stress on call centre staff.
The model is not yet in use, the final iteration is currently with the complaints team to test the weighting we provided for each question and ensure it meets business requirements.
JANUARY 2020 - SOLICITORS REGULATION AUTHORITY
UX and Content, Fran Evans
SOLICITOR’S REGISTER
In January 2020 the SRA updated the functionality of the Solicitor’s Register and consolidated it with other search functions.
It needed to be given greater prominence on the website and some of the content needed to be updated to reflect this.
Before we ran a number of user testing sessions, we engaged with SMEs around the business to find out more about how this might affect users. This helped us create some representative test scripts.
As part of this work we created new content to help customers choose a solicitor as well as navigate more smoothly to the existing copy.
User Testing
We carried out a week of remote user testing sessions ( candidates were recruited from a facebook campaign). Users were given some couple of specific test scenarios.
We tested:
people’s understanding of the tool and what they used it for
whether they understood the new features
could they find key topics?
Results and actions
Through testing we discovered that we needed to surface information about fees higher up, make the feedback tool more prominent and focus on creating clear sub-categories for choosing a solicitor. There was too much content which overlapped and was unclear. We also found out that users preferred the grey panel navigation for high level actions such as choosing and instructing a solicitor but intuitively looked for the red side bar navigation to help them look for topics such as consumer protection.
Live links
Check your solicitor online
Getting up to speed in Test Valey
JULY 2018 - NETWORK BUILD SCHEME, VIRGIN MEDIA
Content and user testing, Fran Evans
The brief
To create a new scheme which would allow customers in the Test Valley to be able to sign up to pay £300 to build the necessary infrastructure before they could sign up for services.
How we did it
We linked up with multiple teams and stakeholders around the business, to ensure that the scheme could meet a tight deadline. We spoke regularly to the community group and the PR team who were rallying local support. It was vital to keep our legal advisors in the loop and follow their recommendations for customer transparency, whilst ensuring the website didn’t get smothered in terms and conditions from the outset.
DECEMBER 2017 - NPOWER
Content Strategy, Fran Evans
The brief
Responsible for content migration for the new CMS for npower.com it was our remit to manage 40+ stakeholders across the business in order to rewrite and redesign npower.com as part of the migration of legacy CMS to Sitecore 8.1.
How we did it
We created the project timeline, copy guidelines and revised the information architecture with help of the internal UX team and external UX resource, Bristol-based Nomensa.
We instigated workshops across the business to streamline, rationalise and redesign content across npower.com.
We managed regular stakeholder engagement throughout the consumer, small business and enterprise areas to ensure timely input and buy-in, allowing time for iteration when necessary.
Results
Working closely with teams and up to 40 stakeholders around the business, I helped to reduce legacy content from 1,000 pages to around a third, ensuring new content met design and copy guidelines and was signed off by the legal and regulation departments.
Making the switch to a new CMS