This first prototype was deliberately stripped back to focus on one question: can people find the establishment they are looking for, and does what they find make sense?
We replaced the complex existing search entry or Get Information About Schools with a single, standard search bar, used real GIAS data throughout (you can read a post about that), and kept the establishment and group pages to the absolute minimum legally required data only. Governance data was left out entirely as there was more work to do on understanding its requirements before it could be included.
Starting minimal was a deliberate choice. A prototype that tries to cover everything tends to produce vague feedback. By taking things back to basics, we gave users space to tell us what they actually needed.
What we found
The new search was well-received, but it raised as many questions as it answered.
Users were unclear what they could search for
Autosuggest only surfaced establishment names, so anyone typing a location or trust name saw nothing and assumed those searches simply were not supported. Trust search was particularly awkward: the only way to reach a trust page was to find a school within it first and navigate from there.
Closed schools caused real confusion
They frequently share names with their successor academies, and the only way to tell results apart was the URN, which most users did not know. Some headteachers did not know their own school's URN. Results ordered by URN compounded the problem.
Users wanted more information
On establishment pages, users consistently looked for information that was not there: contact details, age range, phase, SEN provision, Ofsted links. Most followed the School Profiles link to find it, without realising they had left the service.
What's next
The research pointed clearly at several priorities:
- separate open and closed schools
- fix the ordering
- expand the data on establishment pages.
Steve O'Connor, Interaction Designer