What we did

Tested the user journey with 7 discovery peer reviewers and assessors from when they sign up to review a discovery, to finding out about the project they'll be reviewing and also completing and submitting the report.

Example of email we tested:

Email to panel member showing discovery name in heading and containing a link to the service.

What we found out

  • users were not clear that this was for a discovery peer review as content refers to 'peer review' not 'discovery peer review'
  • the line 'find out about the service and the work done in discovery' that led to the link to read about the service felt vague
  • users told us they wanted to know who the other assessors are, who is on the project team and to read the artefacts
  • the email felt cold and generic to some users

Example of iterated email:

image showing email to discovery peer review panel member with the time and date of the peer review and next steps, which is to visit the service assessment service to view artefacts and find out who is on the panel and team.

What we did

  • added the panel member's name to make it more friendly
  • thanked the user for signing up as a reviewer
  • confirmed it is a 'discovery peer review' and not just a 'peer review'
  • made it clear the type of information users can read in advance through the link, for example, who else is on the panel and also the artefacts (that will be added closer to the time of the disco peer review)

Future considerations

When we build the email in the service, we will add a welcome line of 'Hi [name]' to make the email more personal.

We are talking with our stakeholders and users, the service assessment team, as to whether we call 'discovery peer reviews' 'peer reviews', or, 'assessments'. Research has shown us that the words are used interchangably across DfE, so we are working with the service assessment team to review research so far and may change the name to 'discovery assessments' across the service.

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Content design User research Design Ops