Prototype v1.5 was not a full prototype iteration. It was a correction and, more importantly, when we took a moment of reflection.
We had been working at pace. Team reviews had been squeezed out by time pressure; feedback was flowing primarily through UR sessions and small UCD conversations rather than the broader team.
It showed.
This version fixed the search errors that users had encountered in v1, reordered results A-Z by establishment name, and moved closed establishments and groups to a separate archive. But not everything planned got done before we stopped.
At this point we decided to run a full-team review workshop before continuing. That conversation shaped everything that came next.
What the workshop decided
Move to Figma
Too much time in the prototype kit had been spent on data infrastructure rather than UI and flow design. As it was more realistic people wanted full realism, which is not the purpose of prototypes. Moving to Figma moved focus to the flows and page content.
Include more data
Research had shown users expected more than the basics, and removing data later would be difficult.
Build a proper home page including top level navigation
The landing page needed structure and context as only having a search bar was distracting some users.
Make downloads prominent
Most service users are there to download data, and v1 had (purposely) not addressed this at all.
Add the download flow
The first prototype was deliberately focused on search, but too many users asked about downloads so we felt it really needed to be included.
This v1.5 prototype went untested. Its value was in resetting how we were working, not neccessarrily in producing new design decisions.