Summary of the work we did
We were asked to use the existing software that the apprenticeship provider and assessment register (APAR) service is built on as a basis for this design. As we weren’t sure the existing screens would meet the users’ needs, we decided to prototype two versions of how a user finds an assessment.
The first (Design A), the staff dashboard, was based very closely on the existing APAR screens:
The second (Design B), with a list view of the applications, was designed directly against user needs:
In this design, we did not include filters but asked used a series of questions about how they would expect to narrow the list.
Findings
Design A
- Did not closely match user needs
- Liked the ability to see ‘New’ applications separately
- Didn’t understand what the ‘Feedback’ section would contain
- Withdrawal applications section seen as redundant, because they do not have to approve applications
- Categories did not match the mental models of the stages an application goes through
- Felt that they would have to know where in the process an application was in order to find it
Design B
- Was preferred by 8 of the 9 users we tested with
- More closely matched user needs
- Was seen as more flexible
- Status flags tested well
- Heard that users expect to see the title of an application
- Users felt that using a status was a better way of seeing a withdrawn application
Next steps
We have based the next iteration of the design on Prototype B and have added filters based on how users told us they want to filter.
Updated applications page, with filters:
