Current implementation
After a user has signed in to the service the first page they will access is self-assessment, self-assessment is the centre point of all the interactive elements in the service from this page users can engage in answering questions and accessing the recommendations generated by the service.
Current layout of self-assessment page. Left new user display. Right all sections completed display.
Alternative concepts include
- Increasing the visual impact of recommendations in current display
- Re-organise page placing a container for recommendations first
- Merge topics and recommendations into a single view
- Creating a tile with single view elements
- Shifting away from single view page to and anchor and category pages model
Increasing the visual impact of recommendations in current display
Keeping the current page structure the recommendations display would be replaced with display that deliberately contrasts with the task list component used for the questions categories by utilising a range of component designs.
Design options including, Left to right addition of priority flag to individual recommendations, permanent structure with placeholders, mix of priority flags and permanent structure, tab based display based around priority.
Re-organise page placing a container for recommendations first
Responding directly to the hypothesis that as users interact with the service the recommendations will become more of a priority than the question topics, this took the current design and literally restructured the page to place the recommendations first in the page structure.
Selection of designs featuring placement of recommendations component first
Merge topics and recommendations into a single view
During the various UR sessions, it was noted that users were often missing the recommendations as it was often positioned below the fold of the page requiring users to explore the pages layout actively looking for that material, one option was to bring the topics and associated recommendations together on the page
Above: Collection of visuals bringing together question topics and recommendations
Creating a tile with single view elements
Developing the idea of bringing the topic and recommendation together in order to improve the visual connection between elements that are related to one another these two elements were placed together in a tile based container. This is an experimental component design not used elsewhere in the GDS framework and would require user testing to prove its validity.
Above various implementations of tile based single view container
Shifting away from single view page to and anchor and category pages model
As the service develops one concept to build in scalability to the service is to have a page per parent category. The home page will anchor the service around available categories, the categories themselves would used a simplified layout that contains both question topics and associated recommendations.
Above left anchor page. Above right category page
Way forward
Each of the options discussed above are technically viable and present a potential solution to the problem of the impact on cognitive load to users as the service scales, the ultimate solution however may not be any of these but a combination of elements from each proposal in stages as the service develops in public BETA.