Home Office | GOV.UK

PROJECT INFO

Overview

The Home Office identified that online product Employee Checking Service (ECS) has usability issues. ECS has been recently introduced on GOV.UK website and was an online version of the paper document. The purpose of the project was to evaluate the end-to-end user experience of GOV.UK customers as they interact with ‘Check if someone can work in the UK’ and provide Home Office with following:

Behavioral observations and insights into the current user experience
Insights into design solutions on how to improve and strengthen the experience
Baseline information on the current experience that can be used as a comparison for future online experiences

My Role

As UX Consultant/Researcher I was working with the Home Office design team to plan and execute in-person and remote user testing, collect qualitative and quantitative data to answer several research questions in depth UX analysis and following usability audit.

Approach

I identified that usability study would collect information such as task completion rates, time on task, navigation and content insights, overall satisfaction, areas of concern, and unmet needs. In order to define the correct research questions I’ve created detailed end-to-end user flows with exceptions and error handling experience.

User testing

There were 6 participants in total: 5 participants that took part in one-to-one user testing sessions and one participant that took part in remote user testing. I have created test scripts with specific tasks and scenarios that describe a particular situation regarding an employer and potential or existing employee. Scenarios would vary that enable to test different aspects of application and interaction with ECS. I used Camtasia 2 software on the MacBook Air laptop, for remote testing I used GoToMeeting video conferencing and collaboration tools.

Outcome

The study provided research with metrics, audience insights and actionable improvements. Participants expressed some difficulties in understanding the final message and their next steps. In addition they have picked up a few gaps in the application flow. The major findings and recommendations I have presented in the final report which resulted in further improvement for ‘Check if someone can work in the UK’.