Get Information About Schools (GIAS) has already been through two discoveries and an alpha in recent years. To avoid repeating work - particularly in user research - our first priority was to understand what had been learned, what had already been tried, and how earlier teams approached the problem. We also looked across the wider DfE service landscape to understand where GIAS sits today.
What we reviewed
The previous teams focused mainly on parents and their user journeys. They also explored options for modernising the GIAS database, mapping 3 to 4 possible models for how it could be rearchitected. One of their recommendations was to rename GIAS to the Master Education Provider Service (MEPS).
This context gave us a helpful baseline. What had already been explored, what was well understood, and what might need revisiting in our own discovery.
January to March 2025 MEPS alpha prototype designs
Earlier teams developed and tested three iterations of prototype designs. Interaction Designer Steve O'Connor and Content Designer Priya Nahar reviewed the feedback from each interview round and mapped how decisions evolved between iterations.
The findings validated several key changes such as:
- a simplified search pattern
- a clearer visual hierarchy
- navigation that aligned better with user expectations
The content review showed that parents benefited from:
- a more refined information architecture
- increased use of plain English
- reduced and better structured guidance
- clearer signposting to related information
This helped us to understand what resonated with users, what pain points remained, and which assumptions still required validating.
MEPS user journeys
Previous teams created detailed user journeys for a wide range of users, not just parents. Reviewing these gave us a deeper understanding of who uses GIAS, what they use it for, and how it fits into their wider tasks and decisions.
This review highlighted areas that were well understood, as well as parts of the service where user journeys were incomplete or needed further validation. It helped us identify which groups were more directly dependent on GIAS and therefore where our discovery work could have the greatest impact.
BA teach-ins on related services ins
Our Business Analyst, Maheera Zubair, shared her knowledge of several related DfE services that included Compare School and College Performance, Analyse School Performance, the Financial Benchmarking and Insights Tool, and School Profiles.
These teach-ins helped the team build a shared understanding of: ins helped the team build a shared understanding of:
- how these services overlap
- who their users are
- which data fields each service owns
- where GIAS data plays a critical role
This wider view helped us avoid duplication, ask better questions during discovery, and define a clearer scope for our work on GIAS.
Understanding the data landscape
With limited handover at the start of the project, one of our first objectives was to understand how GIAS data is used across DfE.
We spoke with more than 18 teams who consume GIAS data. These conversations helped us uncover:
- the real user needs and pain points around the data
- the underlying tech, processes and dependencies shaping how GIAS data flows across the organisation
Through these discussions, we identified inconsistencies, mapped dependencies, and surfaced areas where the team could deliver value early. This shared understanding of how GIAS actually works in practice became the foundation for our early decisions, prioritisation, and product direction.
User Research - desk research and libraries
Our user researchers, James Lubwama and Ana Sokolov, consolidated research from the earlier discovery and alpha phases into a shared research library and user needs board. They also reviewed work from other teams, such as School Profiles and the School Accountability and Performance discovery, to understand wider research on parents choosing schools.
This synthesis helped us identify duplication, gaps, and emerging themes, and ultimately guided us toward focusing more on users who directly depend on GIAS rather than parents.
Shared understanding
Reviewing previous work gave the team a shared, realistic picture of the current GIAS landscape. Its users, its data flows, and its place within the wider DfE ecosystem. This helped us avoid repetition, refine our scope, and focus our discovery on the areas where GIAS can have the most impact.
It also set a strong foundation for our next steps: shaping hypotheses, planning new research, and exploring early design directions.