What we did
We spoke to 7 participants to test:
Users understanding of standards.
The user journey to find standards to apply in their work.
The user journey to create and submit a new standard to the forum.
Users included DfE colleagues in architecture, development, cloud engineering, data protection and mapping, user research and heads of profession.
What we found
Overall, users had a clear understanding of what standards are, their purpose and how to apply them in their work.
‘A DfE standard is an approved or consistent way of doing something.’ Participant 4.
'...a set of clear, binary statements that clearly set out what people need to show they have done in their work.' Participant 1.
‘Standards reduce risk... they help delivery do things in the right way.... they save the department money.’ Participant 2.
All users managed to complete the journey to draft, create and submit a standard to the forum for review, although there's more we can do to make the journey better.
Testing the journey to find, create and submit a standard
The journey consists of the Standards manual where users (standard owners) start their journey to find standards, then create and submit new standards for review.
What we learned about the find and create standards journey
Caption: Start of the find journey, homepage of the Standards manual
Users were aware of the Standards manual, but didn't know that they would be creating and submitting their standards online.
Users struggled to navigate to the start of the Create journey, they selected the Guidance card but were not clear if this was where they should to go, or what to do next.
We heard things like:
‘Nowhere tells me where to publish a standard, it’s just guidance.' Participant 6.
‘I can’t see where to submit one for approval.’ Participant 4.
We also learned that users weren’t sure who ‘guidance’ was for, or what it would be about.
‘It’s not clear to me who this is for...’ Participant 2.
‘I’m trying to find how I would write a standard’. Participant 6.
What we did as a result
Changed the name of the standards manual to Find and use standards, to reflect what people would be doing - and expected to do - when using the product.
Iterated the internal-facing product name from Manage standards to Create and manage standards.
Removed the Guidance card and added a Create a standard card to the homepage.
Caption: Iterated homepage for Find and use standards
What we learned about guidance to create standards
Caption: Guidance page we tested to create standards
It wasn't clear to users if this was guidance for standard owners or teams wanting to use standards.
Not all the steps a standard goes through were reflected in the timeline pattern.
What we did as a result
Moved guidance to create and publish a standard out of Find and use standards (previously, the Standards manual) to the Create and manage product. So that standard owners and submitters see the right content at the right time.
Made sure that users can access guidance both before, and after they sign in (using their DfE email) to Create and manage.
Changed the H1: Guidance for standards to Create and publish a standard, to reflect user language and provide clarity about who the guidance is for.
Iterated Create and publish a standard guidance to reduce guidance content. Changed the timeline descriptions to reflect the process and be clearer about the proposed standard being added to the Create and manage standards product.
Caption: Iterated guidance page with H1: Create and publish a standard
What we learned about using the Word template to draft a standard
Caption: First page of draft standards template we tested
Using the guidance for standards, it wasn’t clear that the Word doc drafting template is one way of helping to create the standard with their community. Users weren't aware it could save them time when adding content to the service.
Caption: Start page of Create and manage we tested
Some users felt frustrated when they visited the start page in the internal service to submit the standard to the forum. They had already drafted their standard, now they had to enter the content into a service.
What we did as a result
Reduced the draft standard template from 6 to 4 pages and made the content work harder to explain the template’s purpose and what it will help users do. We also reflected this on the start page for the Create and manage journey.
Caption: Iterated first page of draft standards template
Caption: Iterated start page of Create and manage
What we learned about standard categories in the create journey
Users were not clear on which categories and sub-categories to select when submitting a standard.
‘Are these categories? the guidance on the Standards manual site is better.’ Participant 4.
‘What are these used for?’ Participant 3.
Users expected to know next steps once they submitted a standard for review.
What we did as a result
Added links to category guidance on the categories and sub-categories pages in the product for users to create and submit a standard.
Caption: Page in create journey to select sub-categories, with descriptions and link to guidance.
We added a timescale of 10 working days to the confirmation page once a user submitted a standard to give a clearer indication of next steps and how long a user would have to wait to hear from the standards forum.
Caption: Iterated confirmation page with timescale to confirm next steps once a standard is submitted for review.
What's next
Find and use standards and Create and manage standards were published on 22 January.
In the immediate future, we will fix any bugs, and look at early user feedback. We will monitor feedback and user behaviour using Airtable and Microsoft Clarity, to learn how teams in DfE find using the products.