Our users are professionals who use ‘Connect families to support’ to complete a form to request a voluntary and community sector (VCS) service contacts a family. They may want to look back at the request, and they will want to know if the request has been accepted or declined.
Our design questions were how might we:
- let users know a connection request has been updated?
- show users the details of a connection request they have sent?
- show users updates to connection requests they have sent?
These user needs are further met by the dashboard for professional users.
Notification emails
When we tested the form to request a connection, we learned that users expected an email confirmation. We assumed that they would want an email notification when a connection request had been accepted or declined. We will test whether this assumption is correct.
We intend to use Notify to send emails. To ensure protection of family’s data, we will not include any personal identifiable information in email messages. The data will stay inside the service. Instead, email messages will refer to the reference number for the connection request, because this is anonymised.
Scenario: Professional receives an update from a VCS on one of their requests
The email content is:
Subject: Change to status of connection request [reference number]
The status of connection request [reference number] has changed. View connection request [reference number] on Manage connection requests.
Scenario: Professional receives a confirmation when they’ve made a connection request
The email content is:
Subject: Confirmation of connection request
Connection request [reference number] has been sent to [name of service]. View connection request [reference number] on Manage connection requests.
Original design for the request details page
When we started these designs, we had already designed and tested the request details page for VCS organisation users. We used some of the learning from that to inform the design of this page.
The differences are:
- rather than the professionals contact details, we include the details for the service the connection request was sent to and a link to the service page in the directory
- instead of date received, professionals are shown the ‘date sent’ for the connection request, and the date it was last updated
- there are no options to respond to the request
- if the request is declined by the VCS organisation, the reason for declining is shown at the top of the page as we assume this is the most relevant information for the user once it is declined
We will test both the notification emails and request details page with users to find out if they meet their needs.