Our users are local authority managers and voluntary and community sector (VCS) managers. For this part of the ‘Add a service’ journey, they are asked to add times the service happens.
Changing our language around the times of the service
Most of our user research participants noted that in the previous version it said ‘opening days’ and ‘opening times’. This was causing confusion and misleading users that they could add all their services and organisation in one listing - opening days and times are much more appropriate for a location than for a service.
We made several changes around ‘opening days’ and ‘opening times’, including:
- ‘Opening days’ became ‘When does this service take place?’
- ‘Which days is the service open?’ became ‘Which days does the service take place?’
- ‘Opening times’ became ‘When this service takes place’
- ‘What are the opening times’ became ‘What times does this service take place?’
- ‘opens’ and ‘closes’ became ‘starts’ and ‘finishes’
You can explore the previous times questions in version 2 and the new times questions in version 3 of our prototype (password: proto).
Making it possible to list services without times
Our users also wanted the option to skip adding times for services. Some services are arranged last minute or can be arranged at a time that suits the people who’ve signed up. Having a compulsory time question would either prevent or discourage people from adding these types of services.
We added a question with yes or no answers before the day and time input screens, which allows users to skip them: Does this service take place on set days and times?
We used the GOV.UK design system radios component.
Future considerations
These changes have already tested well in user research with VCS managers. We’ll continue to monitor feedback.