Expert review improves a complex form by @cjforms

Expert review
helps to improve a
complex
form

Speaker and acknowledgments
Caroline Jarrett, Effortmark Ltd
 Your speaker today
 Contributed an expert review to this project
Lucy McKee, Department of Constitutional Affairs
 Led the development of these forms
 Contributed many months of work to this project

Form case study
Outline
The legislative background
Overview of development
The expert review
A twist in the tale
Coverage in the press

Form case study
Outline
The legislative background
Overview of development
The expert review
A twist in the tale

The principles of
the Mental Capacity Act 2005
 A person must be assumed to have capacity unless it is established that the
person lacks capacity;
 A person is not to be treated as unable to make a decision unless all practicable
steps to help the person to do so have been taken without success;
 A person is not to be treated as unable to make a decision merely because the
person makes an unwise decision;
 An act done, or decision made, under the Mental Capacity Act for or on behalf
of a person who lacks capacity must be done, or made, in the person’s best
interests; and
 Before the act is done, or the decision is made, regard must be had to whether
the purpose for which it is needed can be as effectively achieved in a way that is
less restrictive of the person’s rights and freedom of action.

Remove ‘Enduring Power of Attorney’;
now ‘Lasting Power of Attorney’
Previously: ‘Enduring Power of Attorney’
 Could be used at any time
 Applied only to financial affairs
 Concerns about safeguards / coercion
New legislation: ‘Lasting Power of Attorney’
 Can only be used when registered
 Can also apply to health and personal welfare
 Has more safeguards

The development of the forms and
guidance took many months
Commitment throughout to Plain Language
Many internal discussions
An example of a paragraph from a very early version

The development included
extensive public consultation
Consultation included example forms and guidance
 Over 100 professional bodies, charities and other
stakeholders invited to take part
 Public comment also welcomed
 Documents made available in ‘Easy Read’

A section from a consultation document
http://www.dca.gov.uk/consult/powerattorney/lpa_consult_full.pdf

The equivalent section from the
Easy Read summary
http://www.dca.gov.uk/consult/powerattorney/lpaeasyread.pdf

My brief was to review the forms
and guidance for usability
Previously reviewed voter registration forms
 Simple, one page forms for a straightforward task
 Done remotely, using ‘persona-led heuristic
inspection’
 Recommendations were uncontroversial and were
adopted
These forms were much more complex:
 Would the same technique work?

Persona-led inspection step 1:
Start with pen-portraits of typical users
• Much form development is concerned with difficult
or unusual cases
• For usability, we want to focus on the most common
cases
• These are usually straighforward with simple
circumstances.

Fill in the form
Try to be the person in the pen-portrait
 Easier if there is at least one ‘outsider’ at the meeting
Try to be as honest as possible
 Write realistic answers on the form
 Go and look up answers – don’t guess
If you possibly can, have some actual filled-in forms
 Perfectly OK to have earlier versions or previous
legislation

Think about best practice
Look back over the form as filled in
 Minimal guidance before you start
 Just-in-time guidance when you need it
 Hints about how to get answers
 Good balance between the effort needed to fill in the
form and the outcome it achieves
 Personal data handled sensitively
 Easy to get help on the web, by phone and in person

Now try it for yourself
Write a very brief pen-portrait of someone who might
fill in a form for Lasting Power of Attorney

A first version for our expert review
• Ging-Fei (63) makes a personal welfare LPA appointing his son and
daughter as his joint attorneys.
• He also makes a property and affairs LPA, appointing his son and his
solicitor to act jointly and severally. He has been considering his
future since his wife died a year ago.
• He chooses his son and daughter to be his personal welfare attorneys
because he has told them about his wishes for his health and social
care. He chooses his son and his solicitor to be his property and
affairs attorneys because the solicitor has undertaken legal work with
him before and he trusts him to work closely with his son, who is an
accountant, to make decisions about his financial affairs.

Think about how users come to fill in
the form and how they feel about it
How does Ging-Fei find out about LPA?
 Is he familiar with the term 'personal welfare LPA'?
When and how does Ging-Fei get the form?
 Where does he tackle it? e.g., at his home, at his
lawyer's office, together with his son and daughter?
 Does he expect to fill it in all at once or over time?
 How long does he think it will take?
Is he comfortable with official forms and documents?
 Does he feel nervous about this form?

Now try it for
yourself
• Think about being
Ging-Fei.
• Today you want to
look at the LPA for
personal welfare.

Our inspection found good, clear
sentences – not always when needed
LPA requires many different ‘actors’
 The donor
 The attorney(s)
 Replacement attorney(s)
 Persons to notify
 Certificate providers
 Witnesses
Explanations were there, but scattered

The revised version was accepted –
with one notable extra change
Before final change
After final change

Question time
Caroline Jarrett
carolinej@effortmark.co.uk
+44 1525 370379
Twitter: @cjforms
Slideshare: cjforms

Expert review improves a complex form by @cjforms

Recommandé

Recommandé

Contenu connexe

Similaire à Expert review improves a complex form by @cjforms

Similaire à Expert review improves a complex form by @cjforms (20)

Plus de Caroline Jarrett

Plus de Caroline Jarrett (20)

Dernier

Dernier (20)

Expert review improves a complex form by @cjforms