Service Improvements
We collaborated with the Department for Education to enhance their T Levels website, prioritising design improvements for the existing service. To ensure consistent design across government websites, we utilized GDS style components and patterns. With 2 years of expertise in the GDS Design System, we functioned as a user-centred design team. The Design System formed the bedrock of evidence-backed design patterns, allowing us to prototype services and test user journeys, significantly expediting the entire design process, particularly user research. The accessibility of the prototype on Heroku facilitated the development team in constructing the UI.
Meeting User Needs
Our commitment to user-centricity extended to crafting user stories, offering insights into user perspectives and effective problem-solving. Guided by our Senior UX & UI Consultant, well-versed in UX/UI interaction design techniques, our team learned how user needs and behaviour should shape project designs. Given the diverse user demographic for the DfE T Levels service, empathy for users was paramount. We created fictional user personas rooted in authentic user feedback, ensuring our designs resonated with each user’s personality and expectations. Weekly usability testing allowed us to observe user interactions, refining user journeys. Regular evaluation of user activity fuelled continuous enhancements to the prototype, fostering a process driven by user experience improvement.
The Importance of User Experience
The importance of user experience (UX) in a government service like T Levels, with its diverse user demographic, cannot be overstated. Each user comes with unique needs, expectations, and challenges. Crafting an online environment that caters to this diversity requires a deep understanding of user behaviour and preferences. A seamless and user-friendly experience not only aids efficient navigation but also ensures that information and services are accessible and comprehensible to all users. This inclusivity fosters a positive perception of the government service and reinforces its commitment to serving the needs of the general public.
“T Levels are new courses which follow GCSE’s and are equivalent to 3 A levels. These 2-year courses, which launched in September 2020, have been developed in collaboration with employers and education providers so that the content meets the needs of industry and prepares students for work, further training, or further study”
Department for Education.