Last summer we worked with Dorset Council on a discovery to improve their Children and Families digital service. 我们专注于如何 特殊教育需要及残疾(SEND) section of their website can support children and their families. 在这里, parents of children with learning difficulties can find help when they need it for things like education and health. So it was vital to the council it was as effective and 清晰的 as possible.
User research helped us find areas of the site to improve the digital experience for families. These included making sure the information they’re looking for is easily discoverable, 有关, 清晰的, 所有这些都集中在一个地方.
我很高兴能参与这项工作, seeing first hand Dorset Council’s drive to make a real difference in the community. In this post I’ll share some of the highlights from the project and the changes it can make to people’s lives.
价值、激情和灵感
One of the very early highlights that comes to mind is the passion from the staff at Dorset Council. When engaging with different teams as part of our user research they had great ideas for improvements. And it was wonderful to hear their thoughts, insights and desire to make a difference.
During our time with Dorset we spoke with residents to understand their experiences of the current service and why they use it. Some shared that they use it to help reduce anxiety in their children and wanted more video content with information about what activities are available and who would be involved. This was something we took on board and incorporated into our final recommendations for the council.
A lot of SEND users face massive challenges everyday, so talking to them about their struggles was essential in helping the council to improve the service. 这也是我非常关心的事情. Having a daughter who goes to school, I want the best for her and the best services for her. If she needed access to support, I’d want it to be very easy for her to find the right help.
一种现代的工作方式
It was important for us to adopt very modern ways of working to meet as many people as possible and so we had virtual chats throughout the project. 我们还是很了解对方的, and this was something we prioritised first instead of jumping straight into the business side of things.
While virtual meetings are a great way to interact with people, remote working can still sometimes come with its challenges. 我们充分利用了Miro这样的工具, which is essentially a virtual whiteboard where everyone can share ideas and come up with solutions during calls. We also did virtual journey mapping with the team to show how users engage with the council’s services and held idea sessions which kept us all engaged.
我们和多塞特团队一起开了工作坊, but wanted to support them to brainstorm solutions that would work best for their communities. This was really important because we always want to make sure our clients truly believe in any suggested solutions we recommend.
It was a delight to work with a team that was so open and engaged. It was a true collaboration filled with empathy for each other and our workloads which helped us to manage our time together effectively. There was a mutual trust between us all that was central to the success of this discovery.
SEND在多塞特的未来
We had a guiding vision for the children and families service in Dorset. 如果你能让一个团队支持你的愿景, it allows projects to run smoothly and helps you to achieve great results. Myself and the team are delighted with the outcome of the discovery and we’re now onto the next part of the journey. We’ve sent a proposal to Dorset Council to continue on to the Beta phase of the project. It includes our approach to support the team to launch the SEND offer in the next few months. 我们会随时通知你我们的最新计划!
