Get Into Teaching - Alpha Assessment Report
The service to support every potential teacher to help them understand if teaching is right for them, and help them in their application journey.
Service description
The service to support every potential teacher to help them understand if teaching is right for them, and help them in their application journey.
Service users
This service is for
- graduates interested in teaching
- career changers wanting to go into teaching
- Understand users and their needs
Decision
The service met point 1 of the Standard.
What the team has done well
The panel was impressed that:
- the team has made really good use of a lot of earlier qualitative and quantitative data. There are eight personas shared across all services, which had been developed in the latter half of 2019. The team were able to test out four of these personas successfully. There is also up to 10 years’ worth of website analytics the team had access too, and made good use of
- the team had a good spread of users. There were 65 users in total including 33 undergraduates, 13 graduates and 19 people who were considering a career change. These were a mix of ages and ethnicity and showed a good geographical spread. They also included 5 users with either physical disabilities or with suffering from low confidence issues
- the team has been very proactive in engaging and sharing their insights with user researchers working on other services
- the user research team were very effective in sharing their knowledge from user research sessions with the rest of the team in sprints, and in making user research an integral part of the sprint cycle, e.g. downloading and playing back user research sessions
- the whole team engaged in user research, e.g. in guerrilla testing
- the team employed a variety of research methods, e.g. task based testing, guerrilla testing, and interviews
- the team were able to prioritise based on their user research [need an example of this]
- the team have created a Consideration Journey, which enabled to effectively assess user pain points and frustrations
- the team were able to demonstrate that changes in design had made been based upon their user research, e.g. iterative improvements to the ‘How to become a teacher’ page
What the team needs to explore
Before their next assessment, the team needs to
- create an Experience map
- create a Service Blueprint. Given the complex nature of their service and its interactions with other services, and their changing technology, it is recommended the team create a Service Blueprint. This would enable the creation of an effective delivery plan, and is a good visual way of embedding the user experience with the key back stage technologies and supporting processes (i.e. how the customer experience is actually produced)
- book in an Accessibility audit before the end of June
- create an Accessibility Plan for Private Beta, with a specific focus on the needs of low confidence users, e.g. prioritise users with anxiety needs
2. Solve a whole problem for users
Decision
The service met point 2 of the Standard.
What the team has done well
The panel was impressed that:
- the team are aware of the wider context surrounding the get into teaching service
- the team have used a mixture of business drivers, research and data to prioritize user journeys and hypothesis to focus on during Alpha
- delivered a large amount of work in a short space of time during Alpha
- the whole team is involved the design and research cycle
- managed the context switch from the website to transactional services
What the team needs to explore
Before their next assessment, the team needs to:
- mapping out key as is user journeys to understand pain points, entry points, areas of duplicated effort etc
- mapping out to be user journeys and testing low-fi flows with users before designing pages
- using data from these journeys to shape the homepage content
3. Provide a joined-up experience across all channels
Decision
The service met point 3 of the Standard.
What the team has done well
The panel was impressed that:
- existing AD process in place from the current service
- used data from the current service to determine the mobile first approach
What the team needs to explore
Before their next assessment, the team needs to:
- if a need exists for in service assistance on transactional areas
4. Make the service simple to use
Decision
The service met point 4 of the Standard.
What the team has done well
The panel was impressed that:
- audited and reduced the amount of content within the service
- looked at content architecture and simplifying the navigation options
What the team needs to explore
Before their next assessment, the team needs to:
- any possible implications with branding switches from DfE to Gov services
- usability/understanding of the hamburger menu icon - the word ‘Menu’ may be more inclusive
5. Make sure everyone can use the service
Decision
The service met point 5 of the Standard.
What the team has done well
The panel was impressed that:
- the team have considered users with a range of access needs
- ensured media content like videos are inclusive (providing captions)
What the team needs to explore
Before their next assessment, the team needs to:
- investigate the implications of slanted text on readability
- how/if they can influence the existing brand team to create styling suited for web content as well as print and media
- creating coded prototypes to make sure constraints of designing for the web are evident early in the process
- impacts of text over images on readability and performance
6. Have a multidisciplinary team
Decision
The service met point 6 of the Standard.
What the team has done well
The panel was impressed that:
- had an appropriate team size with most of the required roles
- plans to manage transitions between external and new internal personnel
What the team needs to explore
Before their next assessment, the team needs to:
- consider how much content design bandwidth would be required in the future
7. Use agile ways of working
Decision
The service met point 7 of the Standard.
What the team has done well
The panel was impressed that:
- the team applied agile methodology in how they worked, tailoring this to their circumstances
- had necessary remote-working provisions in place and had begun to consider what the exceptional COVID-19 circumstances meant for delivery
What the team needs to explore
Before their next assessment, the team needs to:
- consider how they might continue to learn from emerging best practices of delivering during a crisis, and feed their experiences into cross-government learning
8. Iterate and improve frequently
Decision
The service met point 8 of the Standard.
What the team has done well
The panel was impressed that:
- the team showed lots of examples of iteration through the service from paper to Miro board to fleshed out designs
What the team needs to explore
Before their next assessment, the team needs to:
- continue to involve the whole team in research and design processes
- continue to iterate designs based on insights and research
- give serious thought to what data is collected, driven by other business needs (such as informing marketing). Without a fine balance struck with the minimum amount of data required collected, the service will struggle to meet the standard at Beta and beyond
9. Create a secure service which protects users’ privacy
Decision
The service met point 9 of the Standard.
What the team has done well
The panel was impressed that:
- appropriately securing and encrypted PII
- only requesting relevant information items from applicants
What the team needs to explore
Before their next assessment, the team needs to:
- no further comment at this point
10. Define what success looks like and publish performance data
Decision
The service met point 10 of the Standard.
What the team has done well
The panel was impressed that:
- the team had given considerable thought at alpha on what success looks like, and how it might be measured
What the team needs to explore
Before their next assessment, the team needs to:
- engage with the GDS performance platform team well in advance of public beta
11. Choose the right tools and technology
Decision
The service met point 11 of the Standard.
What the team has done well
The panel was impressed that:
- adopted a loosely coupled, componentised solution architecture
- using technologies/services consistent with other DfE service teams
- automated CI pipeline
What the team needs to explore
Before their next assessment, the team needs to:
- take steps to ensure that there will be sufficient Ruby development capability within the team not just now but for the lifetime of the project or have a mitigation plan should the scarcity of Ruby development skills impede the project
- some of the architecture diagrams were lacking information which meant that the documentation and verbal description were not aligned. Ensure diagrams accurately reflect the full architecture of the solution and contain appropriate levels of detail for intended audiences
12. Make new source code open
Decision
The service met point 12 of the Standard.
What the team has done well
The panel was impressed that:
- the project intends to use Github to store solution source code and make it open source where appropriate. The project needs to ensure they put this good intension into practice
13. Use and contribute to common standards, components and patterns
Decision
The service met point 13 of the Standard.
What the team has done well
The panel was impressed that:
- project has adopted a service-orientated architecture and is re-using central DfE services where they are available
14. Operate a reliable service
Decision
The service met point 14 of the Standard.
What the team has done well
The panel was impressed that:
- the service team has given adequate consideration to operational aspects for the alpha stage
What the team needs to explore
Before their next assessment, the team needs to:
- fully develop and implement plans for ongoing monitoring of the service and quality assurance processes for ongoing changes to the service.
Published 21 January 2021