Improving the Data Access Request Service

We knew that the current service needed to be improved: feedback from both service users and DARS case officers showed that the language used was complex and difficult to understand, it asked for information that was no longer needed, and was worded in a way that did not pull the right information from the user – causing back-office blockers and delays in processing applications.

We needed to address the need for simplification through effective redesign that repeatedly places one fundamental question at the fore: what problem are we trying to solve?

In the months before a full design team were onboarded to the project, a huge amount of discovery work was completed between our business analyst and subject matter experts. This helped our business analyst to understand project requirements, objectives and measures of success.

We then pulled together an agile design team, led by a product manager and business analyst, comprising of:

• user experience (UX) designers
• content designers
• user researchers

Our design team collaborated with the DARS team, including subject matter experts and case officers. Their insight into the DARS customer relationship management (CRM) back-office system enabled us to challenge or validate any process-related assumptions and plan and align our redevelopment work.

They also helped us understand historic service design decisions and associated governance, and shared current processes and any operational constraints that played a part in formulating them.

To aid redevelopment planning, we learnt to challenge whether those constraints still existed before mapping end-to-end journeys using flow diagrams within Mural. Mapping enabled us to visualise DARS online in its wider context and make informed design decisions before redevelopment began.

Collectively, we were able to reframe the problems we were trying to solve, planning to design for the service user in ways that would also ensure back-office teams would have accurate information to process any request for data. Together we mapped what good looks like to us in preparation for ‘what good feels like’ testing with our users.

Working in partnership with the DARS team, we quickly recognised that, at times, we’d need to balance wider and sometimes competing interests and priorities in service design while keeping our users at the centre of any redevelopment.

Critical to the redevelopment of DARS was an empathetic approach to what users need to be able to do or should expect at every stage of the journey.

When designing content for our pages, we continuously floated questions that included:

• have we told our users what they need to do?
• will they easily be able to choose the right option for their situation?
• will they be confident that they have done the right thing or that the right thing is now happening?
• will they be able to tell whether they have permission to do something, and is it clear where to get help?

We built a DARS prototype using components from the established NHS digital service manual and Government Digital Service (GDS) service manual. On occasions, existing NHS and GDS design patterns did not support our user’s needs, so we looked further afield for a pattern that would easily enable the user to do what they needed to do.

We designed the language used on each service page (phraseology, signposting, hint text and guidance) to assist users in understanding the multiple service pathways available.

For example, users need to be able to choose between applying for or managing a Data Sharing Agreement or a Data Sharing Framework Contract. Our simple and straightforward language will help reduce a user’s need to contact help teams or case officers, decreasing back-office process-related bottlenecks.

Early in the project, we recognised that user-centred design for DARS would go beyond the pages within the online service and encompass any offline journeys – for example, paper, electronic, telephone or face-to-face communication required as part of any request for data.

We mapped these extensions alongside our core service redevelopment planning, helping us to align any reworked language across all communication channels and to enable us to evaluate all interlinking parts of the service with our users.

We’ve found immeasurable value in feedback from experienced DARS users – often the harshest critics but also the most discerning.

Users less familiar with DARS are equally valuable, encouraging us to challenge design decisions and assumptions because “it doesn’t make sense to me” or “it would be easier to understand if you presented it like this”. This type of user seems to work harder (through questioning) to bring a sense of clarity to a complex, non-linear, multi-layered service.

Engaging both experienced and inexperienced users in research has helped us to improve the service through the lens of both user types. Sometimes it feels like our experienced users help us to solve known challenges, while those less experienced help reveal hidden problems.

At times we found that those with experience with DARS could provide context as to why something works best and why, in their view, it should not be changed – even if less experienced users found that element challenging. That insight helps us provide a rationale for any design-based decision that goes against some users’ preferences.

We’ve also tested the prototype with neurodiverse users of the service. It was their diversity of thought and behaviour that provided an opportunity to improve usability in ways that were previously only partially explored.

For example, shortening paragraphs for ease of scanning, splitting content into bullet points to aid content digestion and removing embedded links to prevent the need to link out to content in another window.

Through testing, we saw neurodiverse participants show different strengths to non-neurodiverse participants. Their observations of the service help us make our designs more inclusive and meet a broad spectrum of user needs.

Between April 2022 and May 2023, we spoke to more than 80 user research participants. Many told us during the sessions how much they appreciate being involved and value the opportunity to help shape the service redevelopment’s look, feel and functionality.

User research has brought qualitative insight into design and content decision-making, helping us to iterate and develop our prototype.

Like any service redevelopment, there have been times when we have had to make design compromises due to constraints in technology and coding, or forgive design decisions that we know don’t fit our ‘user ideals’. But with continuous user research, we’re now developing code with confidence, knowing that the user experience is as good as it can be until the next round of testing.

We’ll invite some users to test out the redesigned DARS service in August 2023 when it goes into pre-production private beta.

As part of a continual improvement process, we’ll continue to measure how well we have redeveloped the service and where we should aim to improve it. Resource permitting, we’ll continue to seek feedback from participants of user research sessions and implement a survey using Qualtrics, comprising questions that help us establish how thoroughly we have delivered against the problems we were trying to solve.

Over time, we’ll cement ways of establishing how well the service achieves its intent, how often an exemplary service outcome is achieved and how well our users and potential users are supported in what they need or need to do. Adobe Analytics will support us in this.

As we redevelop and improve the service for our users, we know that in doing so, not only can we enhance our reputation, but there’s potential to improve back-office efficiency, saving the DARS team person-hours and reducing operational costs.