{"id":1994,"date":"2018-04-05T11:41:51","date_gmt":"2018-04-05T11:41:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/?p=1994"},"modified":"2022-01-26T11:46:18","modified_gmt":"2022-01-26T11:46:18","slug":"empathy-in-user-focused-design","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/2018\/04\/05\/empathy-in-user-focused-design\/","title":{"rendered":"Empathy in user focused design"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Last month, a member of my family was rushed to hospital and needed heart surgery. (Thankfully, they\u2019re doing well now.)<\/p>\n<p>I had to make sure that, once they were home, they had the care and support they needed. So I found myself on the receiving end of the kind of content I produce.<\/p>\n<p>In the space of 48 hours, I googled, emailed and spoke to service providers from:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>voluntary sector organisations<\/li>\n<li>private sector organisations<\/li>\n<li>the NHS<\/li>\n<li>central government<\/li>\n<li>local government<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>As a content designer, I know that creating and running effective digital services means focusing on what users need to do.<\/p>\n<p>My recent personal experiences show why this is so important.<\/p>\n<p>Before I share them, I\u2019d like to be clear that I couldn\u2019t, and am not trying to, speak on behalf of all users.<\/p>\n<p>Everyone will think, feel and behave differently in their particular situation. These are just my descriptions of, and reflections on, engaging with services during what was a fraught time.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>How I felt<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>I saw, first-hand, how user-centred content and effective service design makes life easier when you\u2019re a user.<\/p>\n<p>Clarity and simplicity help you get on with the job at hand. Especially when you\u2019re:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>emotionally drained<\/li>\n<li>making several difficult decisions at the same time<\/li>\n<li>faced with unfamiliar terms<\/li>\n<li>contacting organisations you\u2019ve never been in touch with before<\/li>\n<li>completing interconnected tasks involving different-sized organisations, from different sectors<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Understanding users\u2019 vocabulary, mental models and the impact what they\u2019re going through is having on them, has always been crucial.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s even more so now the Scottish Government has <a href=\"https:\/\/beta.gov.scot\/policies\/social-security\/\">responsibility for 11 benefits<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Concentrating on users\u2019 context, state of mind, ways of seeing the world and the <a href=\"https:\/\/resources.mygov.scot\/standards\/digital-first\/\">Digital First Service Standard<\/a>, will mean we create a social security system based on dignity, fairness and respect.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>My needs as a user<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>As a civil servant, I\u2019m used to dealing with a range of organisational types and structures. But I was surprised by how, in this context, it felt overwhelming, and mentally and physically exhausting.<\/p>\n<p>It was an eye-opener in terms of how stress and worry got in the way of my ability to take in details, and process information as quickly as I usually would. (They also shrunk my capacity to remember things.)<\/p>\n<p>I had tunnel vision. I wasn\u2019t particularly interested in who provided what service, or which department had responsibility for what.<\/p>\n<p>I just wanted everything to join up seamlessly, so I could finish my lengthy to-do list as quickly as possible, and with the minimum amount of fuss or delay.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>What made things easier<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>The services that were easiest to use:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>had taken the time to assess what information users need, and at what point<\/li>\n<li>were easy to navigate<\/li>\n<li>were upfront about what I had to have to hand before I began<\/li>\n<li>organised the flow of information so it was well paced and made sense<\/li>\n<li>had forms that were easy to fill in (with examples) and didn\u2019t repeatedly ask for the same information<\/li>\n<li>were clear about what they were asking for and why<\/li>\n<li>were clear about where and how to get more advice and guidance<\/li>\n<li>answered the questions I had in the back of my mind<\/li>\n<li>where relevant, explained why the whole process couldn\u2019t be done online<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>They used Plain English too. That was a godsend.<\/p>\n<p>Even though English is my first language, and I don\u2019t often struggle with long, complicated words, the last thing I wanted to do was to have to hack my way out of a forest of jargon.<\/p>\n<p>Because every unnecessary or needlessly lengthy word was yet another thing to decipher.<\/p>\n<p>It augmented the already substantial amount of intelligence I had to contend with, and was an impediment to me being able to bring my undertaking to a conclusion expeditiously. (See what I mean?)<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Reflections<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>My experiences have backed up what I\u2019ve learnt in my role:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>services can\u2019t be effective unless they focus on user needs<\/li>\n<li>it doesn\u2019t matter what your reading age might be, plain English makes accessing services easier for everyone<\/li>\n<li>looking at what\u2019s working and what could be improved, and keeping information up to date, is a must<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Although I didn\u2019t come across the <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/2016\/03\/23\/prototyping-a-life-events-model-for-mygov-scot\/\">life events model<\/a>\u00a0on my online travels, it made me realise how valuable it can be when your journeys cut across several services and websites.<\/p>\n<p>It means some of the thinking about what you might have to consider has already been done for you.<\/p>\n<p>In term of my job, the main thing I took away was how important it is to be involved in, and observe, <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/2014\/09\/09\/five-principles-generating-usable-user-research\/\">user research<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/2015\/06\/18\/5-tips-usability-testing-steve-krug\/\">usability testing<\/a>. So what you produce is based on evidence instead of hunches and assumptions.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s something I\u2019m going to do regularly from now on.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Last month, a member of my family was rushed to hospital and needed heart surgery. (Thankfully, they\u2019re doing well now.) I had to make sure that, once they were home, they had the care and support they needed. So I found myself on the receiving end of the kind of content I produce. In the&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":338,"featured_media":1998,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[97,16],"tags":[31,27,68,59],"class_list":["post-1994","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-content-design","category-scottish-approach-to-service-design","tag-content-creation","tag-content-design","tag-design-and-user-experience","tag-service-design"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Empathy in user focused design - Digital<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/2018\/04\/05\/empathy-in-user-focused-design\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Empathy in user focused design - Digital\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Last month, a member of my family was rushed to hospital and needed heart surgery. 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