Problem
To confirm if a qualification is full and relevant, one of the questions users need to answer is when the qualification was started and awarded.
Unlike the award date, the start date does not appear on qualification certificates. As a result, managers often have to ask the candidate directly or contact the awarding organisation. Without the start date, they cannot complete the check.
This adds time and frustration to an already busy workload. It often means managers need to leave the service to find the information, then come back later to start the check again.
To prepare users, the service start page highlights all the questions they will be asked and advises them on the documents that will be helpful to have ready before starting the check.
Although the start page makes clear what information users will need to provide, many skip straight to the ‘Start now’ button without reading the content above it. This means they begin unprepared, which leads to avoidable drop-offs later in the journey.
Research and data
User research has consistently shown that start dates are one of the most challenging questions. Managers describe the process as slow and frustrating, and some say it contributes to delays in recruitment.
Managers were also surprised to be asked for the start date. They thought it was a new requirement introduced by the service. In fact, the spreadsheet also asked for it, but users had mistakenly relied on the award date, because that was the date shown on the certificate. As a result, they were not in the mindset of asking candidates for start dates.
According to Google Analytics, in May 2025, the abandonment rate on the start and award date page was 26%, with only 74% of users progressing to the next question page. This was an improvement from March 2025, when the abandonment rate was 33%.
Although the abandonment rate decreased compared to previous months, it remained high compared with other steps. This confirmed that we needed to address the problem, while recognising the constraints we were working within.
Constraints
There are limits to what we can do through design to reduce abandonment at this page:
- The start date is a regulatory requirement, so the service must ask for it.
- Users are not used to asking for the start date in recruitment, because when using the spreadsheet, they mistakenly rely on the award date.
- Start dates do not appear on certificates, so managers usually cannot provide them immediately.
Because of these constraints, the challenge cannot be removed entirely. Our focus has always been on supporting users as much as possible, before they begin the check and throughout the journey.
What we did
Initial consideration
We wanted to reduce drop-off rates, especially on the start and award date page, given how difficult it is for users to provide the start date.
We even considered not asking for the start date and weighed up the pros and cons of this approach. However, we quickly discarded the idea. Removing the start date would not only have affected guidance pages that rely on it to provide relevant information, including what appears on the result page, but it is also essential for determining which criteria apply when assessing a qualification.
This meant we must continue to ask for the start date, regardless of how difficult it is for users to find that information.
Ideation session
After this initial consideration, we decided to run an ideation session with the user researcher, content designer, interaction designer and product manager. Because this problem affected both users and the product, we used How might we… statements to generate ideas.
The session helped us identify potential solutions that could be taken forward in different ways:
- policy changes that could be introduced
- design changes to better support users
- new features that developers could explore
We agreed that the best immediate steps would be to promote the service and highlight why certain information is important to check a qualification, for example, through videos or demo days with Local Authorities, and add a pre-check page.
Pre-check page
We added a new pre-check page to introduce deliberate friction in the journey. This page encourages users to pause and check they have the information they need before starting.
To stop users skipping straight to the Continue button, as they often do on the service start page, we added a direct question: ‘Do you have all the information you need to complete the check?’. This forces users to make a deliberate decision about whether they are ready. By asking users to acknowledge this up front, we reduce the likelihood of them being caught by surprise later in the journey.
The page also makes it clearer, through warning text, that users will not be able to complete the check if they do not have the information listed.
Next steps
We now need to track responses to the question ‘Do you have all the information you need to complete the check?’. The Yes/No options will help us understand how many users proceed with confidence. We can also manually monitor a sample of users who answered ‘Yes, I have everything I need’ but then dropped off during the upfront questions.
Alongside this, we may need to work with policy colleagues to promote the importance of the start date more widely. This could help set expectations for managers and reduce the surprise users feel when asked for information that is not shown on certificates.
These steps will give us a clearer picture of whether the pre-check page is reducing drop-offs, and whether additional support or wider interventions are needed.