Project Description

Interaction design and research

Project type

  • Interaction design / User Research

Project Completion

  • 12/06/19

Project Duration

  • 7.5 months

Deliverables

  • UI design for digital statement services including dashboard.
  • Design of user journeys to those services / dashboard.
  • Design, coding, maintenance of interactive prototype.
  • Design, coding and testing of downloadable digital statements.

UX Methods

  • Interface (UI) design
  • Story and User Journey mapping
  • Interactive prototypes
  • Discovery / Desk research
  • Remote and contextual usability testing

Tools

  • .Gov Prototype Kit (Nunjucks)
  • Visual Studio Code
  • Photoshop

Following the UK’s decision to leave Europe, HMRC is rolling out new customs, tariffs and VAT rules for companies working with the EU. Before finalising Brexit and in light of the possibility of a “No Deal” exit a number of contingency approaches were also adopted to manage import / exports.

These new requirements were developed in conjunction with the HMRC’s ongoing commitment to a new Customs Declaration Service (CDS) which was due to replace the current system Customs Handling Imports and Export Freight (CHIEF) which is nearing obsolescence as a system.

Hired an an Interaction Designer for the “Financials” Team dealing with the end part of the Import / Export declaration journey where users accessed VAT, Duty and other certificates and statements essential in processing imports and exports.

Mapping the service and users

Story and user Journey maps were created with members of the team to map out the ‘end to end’ journey of the services and how MVP release phases might look.

‘As is’ and ‘To-be’ user journey maps were created detailing specific user types at each stage (based on existing persona work) and how they might access their new digital financial statements. Existing or assumed issues over the length of the journey were mapped and relevant solutions explored.

Top: Story map (detail).  Bottom: Journey map for ‘Trader’ user type.

“Dual Track” Agile

Design, content and research (inc input from BAs) was organised into a ‘Dual Track’ Agile process to allow for rapid planning and iteration of discovery research including validation of the various assumptions gathered together in the story and journey maps produced. A dedicated hypothesis KANBAN board was set up where hypothesis questions and results were tracked on a weekly basis. New hypothesis statements were created in weekly refinement sessions and put in the back log and prioritised. Successful hypothesis research was played back to to the wider development team for integration with the development backlog.

Prototyping and testing (Discovery / Alpha)

Based on the .GOV Design System and using the .GOV Prototype Kit, various user journeys were created and both contextual and remote usability testing was carried out with users ranging from accountants within large retail businesses (for example: Debenhams, ASDA) to Freight Forwarders, external accountants and large to individual (sole) Traders.

Top Left: Prototype dashboard detailing services to test, happy / unhappy paths etc.  Top right: Import VAT Start page

Digital statements

Working with the ETMP (Enterprise Tax Management Platform) technical team, new digital statements for all services were designed and built for integration with the platform.

The statement content and to be clearly and logically understood by all users from specialist import/export accountants to individual sole traders. With ongoing advice from HMRC’s digital accessibility champion Chris Moore, all pdf download statements were coded to be fully accessible to visually impaired and blind users. A series of remote and contextual usability tests were carried out to test the effectiveness and legibility of both finding and reading the digital statements.

Project type

  • Interaction design / User Research

Project Completion

  • 12/06/19

Project Duration

  • 7.5 months

Deliverables

  • UI design for digital statement services including dashboard.
  • Design of user journeys to those services / dashboard.
  • Design, coding, maintenance of interactive prototype.
  • Design, coding and testing of downloadable digital statements.

UX Methods

  • Interface (UI) design
  • Story and User Journey mapping
  • Interactive prototypes
  • Discovery / Desk research
  • Remote and contextual usability testing

Tools

  • .Gov Prototype Kit (Nunjucks)
  • Visual Studio Code
  • Photoshop

Results

Whilst up against very short timescales, the technical difficulties of basing delivery on two separate systems (CDS and CHIEF) and shifting requirements based on government Brexit policy, the Financials team delivered release 1 of the overall HMRC roadmap on time, fully tested and validated by users.

Prototype design and iterations of design based on hypothesis, discovery and usability testing with a diverse group of end users was a completed within Release 1 and to .GOV's stringent requirements.