Forever User-Centred, The GDS Way

FOREVER USER-CENTRED,
THE GDS WAY
#IWMW18 #B7

● About Wunder
● The GDS approach
● Challenges universities face
● Challenges students face
● Design challenge
○ User research
○ Creating personas (then a coffee break!)
○ Writing user needs
○ Prototyping
AGENDA

WE ARE WUNDER
We are a full service digital agency that
designs, builds and optimises digital
solutions.
With our unique blend of continuous digital
development, user research, and agile
coaching, we have the power to grow,
retain and engage with our clients.
We have over 160 specialists working across
9 offices in 5 countries, including UK,
Germany, Latvia, Estonia, and Finland.
https://wunder.io/

Digital Consulting
OUR SERVICES
UX & Service
Design
Solutions
Development
Continuous
Improvement
Discovery
Performance Audits
User Research
Digital Consulting
UX Strategy
Content Strategy
UX & Service Design
Interaction &
Content Design
Systems Integrations
Agile Development
Open Source
Agile Project
Management
Performance Analytics
Hosting & Maintenance
Service & Support
Continuous
Development

OUR APPROACH
COLLABORATIVE OPEN & TRANSPARENT
AGILE VALUE-DRIVEN

HERE TODAY
KARL ORSBORN
Service Designer
RANDAL WHITMORE
UK Marketing Manager
OLIVIER SEVERS
Sales Manager

At the core of the GDS approach is the
principle of agile delivery.
Agile provides a method of breaking down
large, complicated projects into small, simple
ones, and working on a bit at a time.
By doing this, we can reduce the levels of risk
in a project, checking the project’s progress at
predefined checkpoints and reassessing and
adjusting budgets and requirements if
necessary.
WHAT IS THE GDS APPROACH? WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE IN ACTION
● Discovery - working out what your user
needs are, what services already exist to
meet those needs, and how they are
currently performing
● Alpha - building prototype services to
meet the user needs, and testing them
with users
● Beta - building an end-to-end
prototype, testing it in public and
preparing to release it
● Live - releasing and running your
service, and continuously improving it
based on analytics and user feedback

SKILLS NEEDED IN AN AGILE
DELIVERY TEAM
AN EXAMPLE OF A TYPICAL GDS
AGILE DELIVERY TEAM SETUP
● Product manager
● Delivery manager or scrum master
● One or more user researchers
● One or more content designers
● One or more UX/UI designers
● A developer
● A technical lead
● An assisted digital lead
● An accessibility lead
● (A digital performance analyst)
● (A technical architect)
● (A web operations engineer)
● (Quality assurance and testing skills)
● Analyse user needs and turn these into
prioritised user stories
● Manage and report to stakeholders and
manage dependencies on other teams
● Procure services from third parties if
needed
● Design, build, test, host and iterate
software
● Test with real users
● Find ways of accrediting, analysing and
handling data
● Support the live running of the service

We overhauled food.gov.uk and transformed
their ways of working to become more
user-centred and agile.
We ensured they were building the right thing
for their core users (primarily consumers and
food businesses), helping justify spend and
improve ROI per project phase and beyond.
A phased approach helped with stakeholder
engagement and next phase buy-in.
It offers great benefits for end-users, content
editors, and multiple departments who need
to work collaboratively in order to achieve the
organisation's goals.
FOOD.GOV.UK SUCCESS

User feedback has been very positive:
"I'm finding the new website much brighter, clearer and cleaner than the old one. Nice upgrade!"
"As someone who is not confident with computers this is a very easy to use and informative web
site"
Food.gov.uk's Product Owner has enjoyed the experience:
"The Discovery phase was very successful. It identified the four key services that we needed to
really focus on and that gave us a really good undertaking for how to proceed within the next
Alpha and Beta stages.”
At first glance, engagement stats look good but concrete KPIs will be available soon (the site launched
into Beta earlier this year).

CHALLENGES UNIVERSITIES FACE
Years of individual departments and faculties having free will to build their own digital services has led
to a vast online library of content, much of which isn’t streamlined and ‘within brand’. Many of these
sites and services are old, have a poor user experience, and lots of legacy content. They can be built on a
range of different CMS’.
There’s a lack of focus, with different websites being spun for all purposes to cover the multitude of
projects, courses and areas of research a single department might cover.
This is caused by the sheer number of faculties and departments, each responsible for their own budget,
and little governance over how they manage their digital resources.
Fragmentation between different departments and research faculties

Recruitment of students is a key issue raised by a number of universities we interviewed. There’s
increased competition between different higher education providers for the recruitment of students.
Different institutions target different students (e.g. domestic students, international students,
undergraduates, masters students, students undertaking distance learning).
What are universities doing to attract students?
● Creating an international presence by opening overseas bases or developing partnerships with
universities abroad to tap into the international student market
● Developing tools and resources for distance learning
● Providing virtual open days and tours of university facilities and student accommodation
● Increasing the range of courses on offer to prospective students
Student recruitment

The current clearing process involves students phoning universities to find suitable courses. University
administrative staff are stretched at this period, fielding calls from students looking to get onto a
university course.
There is currently no one-stop digital solution which helps to simplify the clearing process for
admissions staff, with different institutions employing different methods to help manage the process.
Higher education providers are seeking digital solutions to make this process more efficient and
effective which will also help to free up admissions staff time.
Clearing process

Digitising the student university experience
Much of the university experience requires students to engage with admissions and administrative staff
and many universities are looking to enhance the digital university experience for students.
This is particularly the case during open days, admissions, clearing and student registration when a huge
influx of visitors and enquiries takes place, which puts huge demands on staff and resources.
Universities are looking at digital solutions to help streamline these processes.

There has been a recognition that in changing times, students profiles, needs and circumstances have
changed. Students can be of a range of ages, some may decide to study much later in life, some may
live abroad, others may have children or want to study around full-time employment.
By providing more flexibility to students, such as offering online resources, universities can become
more appealing to a broader range of students.
The changing profile and needs of students

CHALLENGES STUDENTS FACE
Applying to university is a long, drawn-out affair that happens at a very stressful time for students as
they’re studying and preparing for exams.
Lower sixth students are encouraged to start looking at courses and unis as early as April, and by June
they’re actively booking onto open days and engaging with unis directly. By the end of July students are
narrowing down their options and preparing their monster, 4000 word personal statement.
By September students will have their predicted grades and are ready to start applying. Oxbridge
applications have to be made by October and other universities by mid-January the following year. It’s
not until the end of March that students will receive their offers.
That’s almost a year of having to make huge decisions (and waiting).
The application process

Students that don't get the grades they required and still want to go to university go through clearing.
Emotions are running high during this period. Students leave devastated if results aren’t what they
thought they'd get.
They're advised to start ringing around the universities from home. Students can often be left on hold
for hours and hours because everyone else in the country is going through the same process. Once
they get through to someone on the phone, they're often given a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ there and then.
Once students are through, the clearing process is quite good but this can still take a matter of days at
a time when students can be very upset.
Clearing

Careers advisors, tutors, and teachers give students as much information as they can to help students
make the right choice, but they can't make the ultimate choice for them.
The majority of students don't know what they want to do (who does at the age of 17 or 18?). They really
struggle when deciding which course to apply for to keep their options open and many lead with the
A-Level subjects they've studied which they enjoy the most.
Many factors influence a students’ course or university choice, including the perceived quality of
universities, peer pressure from parents keen for their sons and daughters to somewhere in particular
(perhaps because of prestige, or cost) and from friends, who want to stick with mates and study in the
same place. Tutors and teachers are also, of course, highly influential.
Course and university choices

UCAS is pivotal when it comes to applying to universities. Not only does it manage the entire
application process, from storing and sharing personal statements, references, and course and university
choices, but it also offers the most comprehensive list of courses available at all unis in the UK.
Searching for courses on the UCAS website yields vast numbers of results with students needing to
click into each one to find out more about that specific course.
Searches can be narrowed down by filtering based on type of qualification, location and (finally!) entry
requirements, but this often still results in a bewildering array of courses and subject combinations.
The role of UCAS

USER-CENTRED DESIGN CAN HELP
SOLVE SOME OF THESE PROBLEMS

The problems universities face
are huge, and it may seem like
a monumental effort to even
begin to tackle them, but the
GDS proved it can be done
when they built GOV.UK
WHAT DID THEY ACHIEVE?
● Hundreds of separate department and
agency websites were gradually
brought under the single GOV.UK
domain
● 667 user needs were highlighted and
addressed during the design and
development of the new site
● GOV.UK running costs are less than a
quarter of the sites it replaced
● The processes GDS used to build
GOV.UK set the benchmark for best
practice in user-centred design
● These processes led to the creation of
the Government’s Digital Service
Standard, which all new public facing
transactional services must meet

“As a prospective student, how do I
choose a university course that’s
right for me?”

SOME BACKGROUND RESEARCH
(Finding a course really isn’t that easy)

Acoustical
Aeronautical
Aerospace
Audio
Automotive
Biochemical
Boatbuilding
Chemical
Chemical process
Communication
Computation
Computer aided
Computer systems
Control
Electrical and electronic
servicing
Electrical
Electronic
Energy
Engineering systems
Engineering technology
Explosive ordnance
Extended
Fire
Fluid
Forensic
Foundation
Gas
Industrial design
Instrumentation
Mathematical
Mechanical
Metals
Mineral
Mining
Model
Motor vehicle
Naval architecture
Ocean
Offshore
Petrochemical
Petroleum
Plant
Power
Reliability
Shipbuilding
Telecommunications
Welding

DESIGN CHALLENGE
Design A Useful Online Course Finder

User research helps us learn about our users and create a service that meets their needs. Without it, we
don't know what problems we’re trying to solve, what to build, or whether the service we design will
work for users.
The aim of user research is to find out:
● who your likely users are and what they’re trying to do
● how they do it currently (for example, what services or channels they use)
● the problems or frustrations they experience
● what users need from your service to achieve their goal
DISCOVERY
User research

● Ethnography - observing how people do things and what problems or barriers they
encounter
● Interviews - one-on-one discussions with end-users, exploring what they do and
how they do it
● Workshops - facilitated group exercises with internal and external users
● Surveys - quantitative research with large numbers of participants
● Existing data analysis - researching data such as analytics, workflows and data logs
● Journey mapping - map out the existing journey a user takes to complete a specific
task
DISCOVERY
User research activities

DISCOVERY
In the world of government, it's important not only to demonstrate to GDS that you’ve attempted to
address real-world problems, but it also builds empathy for users within the whole team and fosters a
'team sport' ethic to user research.
For universities it will help to demonstrate to key internal stakeholders that there you’ve highlighted a
problem and have done the research to back it up, and consequently get buy-in to continue to the next
phase of the project.
It’s also a good checkpoint for universities to ensure that what happens next is grounded in solid
evidence before investing more time and money.
Why user research is important

DISCOVERY
After carrying out your discovery activities you should typically get:
● Descriptions of different types of users (for example, personas)
● An understanding of the barriers that users face
● A journey map that describes your users’ current experience
● Sets of needs for different types of users
User research outputs

I'm doing psychology, biology and sociology but don't know
what to study at university. I think I am going to get 3 B's,
hopefully at A2.
At the time, I chose my current course because I was planning
to originally do photography however I'm really
spontaneous/impulsive and wanted to push myself to try
something new and maybe more useful or more difficult so I
changed it at the last minute. I have enjoyed the time I've
spent in this course, I just don't enjoy it enough to pursue a
career out of it.
I really want to go to uni. I have always wanted to do
something in writing, such as journalism/politics or even
teaching, I just don't know. I mean, I even looked at Nursing. I
basically can't seem to make a choice, my grades are a
restriction too. I mean if my careers adviser at my college
couldn't help me decide on something, I don't know who can.
WHAT DOES THIS TELL US?
● Subjects
● Grades
● Spontaneity
● Indecisiveness
● Interests

I currently have absolutely no idea what I want to study at uni
or what I want to do with my life so can’t narrow it down to
something specific like dentistry.
I did very well in my A levels and took a gap year as I had the
same dilemma, thought I finally figured it out, applied, went to
uni briefly, hated my course, dropped out and am now back
to square one.
There’s no one subject that really stands out to me and having
been out of education for a while I seem to have lost the
motivation to study and it’s gonna take something super
inspiring to pull me back in. I would also like to be within an
hour of home as I do get very homesick so that narrows
things down slightly… which may or may not be a good thing?
● Subjects
● Grades
● Spontaneity
● Indecisiveness
● Interests
● Motivation
● Inspiration
● Location

● Subjects
● Grades
● Spontaneity
● Indecisiveness
● Interests
● Motivation
● Inspiration
● Location
● Enjoyment
● Job prospects
● Risk
WHAT DOES THIS TELL US?Before my gap year I was set on doing engineering or physics,
but I have found out that I just won't enjoy doing them
either as a career, or just for study. I used to want to do them
because I had this stupid mentality that what I enjoy is not
important and that I should only study something at uni that
will increase "job prospects".
I am much more inclined to study psychology, chemistry, law
or neuroscience, but I scratched psychology and law off my list
because I have read a lot about how competitive it is, which
put me off. And I was worried that job prospects for
psychology/law would be no better either.
So now I feel like I should study a "reliable" undergrad like
chemistry or neuroscience? But I'm not sure if I am that
interested in chemistry in the first place? I didn't enjoy
studying chemistry much, from my experiences at A level, and I
would hate to repeat the experiences. Since the modules are
quite similar to A level.

I still don't know what to study at uni and my personal
statement first draft is due on Tuesday. I currently study
biology, chemistry and psychology.
I wanted to do pharmacy after I visited Portsmouth uni open
day but I have read so much online about how bad it is… My
other options are biochemistry which I was thinking of doing
and then doing a Masters in forensics as that really interests
me. However, it’s very hard to get a job in forensics.
I was also considering biomedicine, anatomy, chemistry and
biology. But I really don't know what to do anymore. And I
don't particularly want a job in a lab doing research.
I also really want to go to Portsmouth uni as it’s fairly cheap
to live there and I won't get much of a maintenance loan and
my parents don't have much to help me.
● Subjects
● Grades
● Spontaneity
● Indecisiveness
● Interests
● Motivation
● Inspiration
● Location
● Enjoyment
● Job prospects
● Risk
● Money

If you know 100% that’s where you wish to go then look at
the uni website and work your way through all the
possible courses, ticking off the ones you aren’t interested
in until you narrow it down.
● Subjects
● Grades
● Spontaneity
● Indecisiveness
● Interests
● Motivation
● Inspiration
● Location
● Enjoyment
● Job prospects
● Risk
● Money

● Subjects
● Grades
● Spontaneity
● Indecisiveness
● Interests
● Motivation
● Inspiration
● Location
● Enjoyment
● Job prospects
● Risk
● Money
Engineering is an extensive subject, and with so many types of
engineering to choose from, it can be difficult to narrow down
which one is for you. To help you to decide, you should try and
identify what you’re passionate about. What gets you excited,
and what do you spend your free time on?
All types of engineering include some form of problem-solving
(and generally focus on making life easier), but what
engineering-related solution gives you the most buzz? If you
choose a subject you’re naturally interested in, you’ll find it
easier to stay motivated during your course, and stay involved
with the subject whilst pursuing an engineering career.

ACTIVITY ONE
15 minutes
Creating personas

PERSONAS
● Personas are hypothetical, archetypal
representations of real users
● They can be used to help identify the
motivations, expectations, and goals
that influence online behaviour
● We use these fictitious personas to
describe user characteristics such as
age, goals, skills, attitudes, concerns,
and behaviour patterns
● These can then help guide the decisions
we make for the design of our service
Personas can be very useful if they
are developed based on sufficient
research data and rigorous analysis

WHAT PERSONAS LEAD TO
A step on from a user persona, an empathy map is a collaborative tool teams can use to gain a deeper
insight into their users. Much like persona, an empathy map can also represent a group of users.
Empathy maps allow us to visualising user attitudes and behaviors and they help UX teams align on a
deep understanding of end users. The mapping process also reveals any holes in existing user data.
Traditional empathy maps are split into 4 quadrants (Say, Think, Hear, and See), with the user or persona
in the middle. Empathy maps provide a glance into who a user is as a whole.
Empathy maps

WHAT PERSONAS LEAD TO
Experience maps provide a visual representation of what users do, think and feel over time, from the
point they start needing a service to when they stop using it.
Speaking to a range of users will help you understand all the events, transactions and related services
they may experience throughout their journey. Consolidating these into a single map will help you to
understand:
● how users experience the current service
● how things work (or don’t)
● interdependencies - for example, between different departments or services
● pain points and where things are broken
Experience maps

ACTIVITY TWO
15 minutes
Writing user needs

USER NEEDS
People and businesses use online services to help them get something done (for example, pay a bill,
check a their bank balance, buy a plane ticket). ‘User needs’ are the needs that a user has of a service,
and that the service must satisfy for the user to get the right outcome for them.
Services designed around users and their needs:
● are more likely to be used
● help more people get the right outcome for them
● cost less to operate by reducing time and money spent on resolving problems
To create content or services, you must start with the user need. It’s a simple concept, but is sometimes
a bit harder to put into practice.
Understanding user needs

As a… [who is the user?]
I need to… [what
does the user want to do?]
So that… [why does
the user want to do this?]
They’re written from the
user’s perspective and in
language that a user would
recognise and use
themselves.

As a prospective student
I need to get help and advice
So that I can find a course that meets my
requirements
This is a valid user need because it doesn’t
suggest a specific solution. You might need to
produce a combination of features and
content to make sure the user need is met.
A GOOD EXAMPLE OF A USER
NEED
A BAD EXAMPLE OF A USER NEED
I need to use an online search
So that I can see courses that will accept
me based on my predicted grades
This is not a valid user need because it creates
a ‘need’ to justify an existing service, and
suggests a specific solution that may or may
not be right.
Assumptions we make when designing
content or a service can often be wrong. We
need to find the best solution to meet each
user need.

I need to study a course
that I find enjoyable and
fulfilling
So that I stand the best
chance of succeeding

USER JOURNEYS
The goal of the discovery phase is to be able to map out the ideal process a user will go through based
entirely on their needs.
User journeys are the step-by-step journey that a user takes to reach their goal. This journey will often
consist of a number of key decision points that carry the user from one step to another.
Experience maps (mentioned earlier) often represent the current user journey, with all of its various
problems and pains. Once user research has been carried out and a list of user needs has been
established, the existing journey can then be redesigned to form an ‘ideal’ user journey free from
frustration.
The ultimate discovery outcome

ENDING DISCOVERY
In the discovery phase we understand, and map out, the user journey. We aim to find out:
● Who our users are
● Our users’ needs, and if and how they are currently met
● How we could start developing a new service (if our discovery finds there’s a user need for one)
● The people we need for the alpha phase
● What the user journey for someone using our proposed service might look like
● What we could name our proposed service
● How we can meet accessibility requirements
● How we might build a technical solution given the constraints of legacy systems
● Any policies that relate to our service and how they might affect our service
What we hope to achieve

ENDING DISCOVERY
Our discovery phase (according to GDS) should generate three things:
● a prioritised list of user needs
● a prioritised list of user stories
● a list of stakeholders, and information you’ve got from them about existing services
Most importantly, ending discovery gives the project team a chance to take stock of what they’ve learnt
and present their findings back to senior stakeholders.
This gives everyone an opportunity to assess the importance of ongoing work and any related risk, and
for additional budget to be released so the project can continue (if appropriate).
What we hope to achieve

ENTERING ALPHA
In the alpha phase we should build wireframes and test prototypes with users, and demonstrate that
the service we want to build is technically possible.
We do this to find problems with our service design and decide how to solve them, and make some
estimates about how much the service will cost. Doing this also helps us learn about the risks for the
beta stage as early as possible.
By the end of alpha we should know whether to move the service into the beta phase (like the end of
discovery, the end of alpha is an opportunity to 'cut our losses'), and what we need to build in beta.
Goals of the alpha phase

The wireframes are the
floor plan for your website,
creating a vessel for which
design and content can
flow into.
A wireframe is a visual representation of a user
interface, stripped of any visual design or
branding elements. It’s used by UX Designers
to define the hierarchy of items on a screen
and communicate what the items on that
page should be based on user needs.
WIREFRAMES

WIREFRAMES
● Give visual designers a basis to begin
creating screens
● Used as a reference point for functional
specifications
● Communicate the functionality you’re
going to build with stakeholders
without muddying the waters with
visual design elements or branding
● Explore ideas without the difficulty of
change inherent in Photoshop mockups
● Used as a basis for prototyping and for
user testing ideas early on
Why they’re important
The wireframes are the
floor plan for your website,
creating a vessel for which
design and content can
flow into.

ACTIVITY THREE
20 minutes
Prototyping

PROTOTYPES
A prototype is a quasi-realistic representation of what you’re building that can be interacted with and
tested on users in order to help validate your design.
They’re useful for a number of reasons:
● Help identify usability issues before going to code
● Get early user feedback
● Observe how users want to interact with your design
● To work out complex functionality or screen flows
● To help begin to define the interaction design
● Faster to create than fully coded solutions (front and back end)
What is a prototype?

PROTOTYPES
Prototypes can come in many forms and fidelity. They can range from paper based sketches, clickable
wireframes and even fully coded HTML.
Typically prototyping was seen as one of the later stages of the UX design process, conducted after you
had finished a full set of wireframes.
With techniques such as paper prototyping it can be done much sooner and emerging techniques like
browser-based prototyping can even give you a springboard to begin the actual build process.
What is a prototype?

DESIGN CHALLENGE
Design A Useful Online Course Finder
● Subjects
● Grades
● Spontaneity
● Indecisiveness
● Interests
● Motivation
● Inspiration
● Location
● Enjoyment
● Job prospects
● Risk
● Money

● Our objective in the beta phase is to build a working version of the service
based on our alpha prototypes
● The version we build must be able to handle real usage and work at scale
● We also keep improving the service and replace (or integrate with) existing
legacy services
ENTERING BETA
What is beta?

ENTERING BETA
By the end of the beta phase we aim to:
● Improve our service by testing it with users, based on the user stories you created in the alpha
phase
● Solve any technical or process-related challenges
● Get the service accredited (a government requirement)
● Make a plan for the launch of your service (including getting an ac.uk domain name, start and end
pages, and arrange SSL certificates)
● Release updates and improvements into the development environment
● Measure the effect of any changes to KPIs
● Carry out regular accessibility testing and get an accessibility audit
● Test our assisted digital support model
Goals of the beta phase

MOVING TO LIVE
The live phase is the time to keep improving
your service based on:
● User feedback
● Analytics
● Your ongoing user research
Launching your new service

MOVING TO LIVE
Before you go live, you should make sure:
● The service meets the user needs you found in your discovery, alpha and beta phases
● You’ve set up your analytics to accurately measure the success of your service
● You’ve got a plan for the transition or integration of any existing services that meet a similar user
need to yours
● The service meets accessibility requirements
● You can support the service and you’ll be able to keep iterating it and improving it until it’s retired
Keep finding things that need improvement, do research to get the best solutions, iterate, then
release.
Launching your new service

Forever User-Centred, The GDS Way

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