Landing page
We changed 'Find early help support for families, children and young people' to 'Get local support for families, children and young people'.
We have done this because:
- 'Early help' has specific connotations and may not be accurate when the services provided are universal
- ‘Get’ better reflects the main purpose of the service
- ‘Local’ helps clarify the type of support available here
We also removed references to the word ‘referral’ over fears this would panic families who could already be hesitant to get help.
Other pages
We removed references to ‘referral’ in favour of ‘get’ because of insights about that word’s connotations and removed ‘implied’ from consent wording. User researchers explained a strong need for there to be no ‘implied’ before this. They explained findings from alpha meant consent needed to be explicit with no ambiguity.
We changed ‘get’ to ‘request’ because 'get' was ambiguous, and also implies the family or person will actually get this help. Request is more true to process, and also reflects previous work done on alpha.
New search component
The ‘Type of support’ dropdown now includes types of support identified in the family experience research’s card sorting exercise.
We started using the language ‘services’ in the prototype. We first avoided this because not every organisation or charity will actually be a service, but for ease of use and number of words on the page, it’s easier to refer to these things as services. We'll see what comes out of user testing.
We also made this change to reflect the family experience prototype and the research done with families.
Search page
We added functionality to search by name of services.
This is because of user research insights: just using filters will stop users from searching for specific groups. Not everyone using this tool is looking for general services – some might know what they want.
Also, listing ‘types’ is problematic for users whose local authority does not offer every type on our list. A free text box would help us avoid these false expectations.
We changed name of the service in the prototype to 'Connect children and families to local services, groups and support'. This is in line with family experience work. It's also more true to purpose (groups). Family experience research shows families understanding ‘services’, which is also shorter. We used 'connect' because policy was keen on including this word. We want to test this approach and see whether users understand the meaning.