Introduction
Recommendations principally consists of three elements the generated list of recommendations and detailed information on the nature of the recommendation, what objectives it aligns to and how it can be resolved
Following the Assessment/Audit and Objectives user journey a series of service generated recommendations are created.
Prototype 1.2
Basic interaction concept
The first element a user will see following the completion of the audit element of the service is the recommendations list page which then would link them in a directly to the a page of detailed content.
Recommendation content experimentation
A recommendation based on one page of content with a range features including:
- Recommendation title
- Description
- Prerequisites
- Dependencies
- Objectives covered
- Estimate of effort
- Actions to take
- Links to supporting materials
- Project staffing
- Recommendation closure functionality
3 designs were produced and tested using a mix of the above elements during the user research phase
Version A contained limited information that included the recommendation title, a description of the recommendation, a list of actions, links to external sources of support, recommendation and closure functionality.
Version B contained a more detailed view that included the recommendations title, Objectives covered, recommendation overview, prerequisites, list of actions, a list of actions, links to external sources of support, recommendation and closure functionality.
Version C contained the most detailed view including the recommendations title, Objectives covered, recommendation overview, Estimates of effort prerequisites, list of actions, a list of actions, links to external sources of support, recommendation and closure functionality.
User research
The recommendations list page while easily understood by all users
“It would be better if we could close things from a single page”
"How can I trust those estimates? Every school is different."
In general interview participants liked the concept of recommendations and found the structure of every version tested easy to understand, overall they found version A limited in value, Version C (specifically the estimates chart) useful but difficult to trust, Version B the most credible/accessible from a content perspective.
Prototype 1.3
From the user research both recommendations list page and recommendation format changed.
Recommendations list page included an objective filter for the service generated recommendations (see also Objectives and Audit Questions) and functionality to enable the closing of individual recommendations
Recommendation format restructured to include “most useful” from a user perspective areas of information and specifically removed Functionality to close the recommendations.