BOBBY KING
Case study: interaction design for HMRC
I worked with stakeholders, researchers and developers to redesign one of the most complex online services in the UK.
The brief
HMRC's online service for Income Tax contains dozens of online journeys, including self-employment, capital gains and pensions. It contains hundreds of screens. Income tax 'policy' is held in documents, on gov.uk and on complicated online manuals.
Our team was made up of a business analyst, user researcher and content designer. We were in daily contact with subject matter experts from HMRC to help us develop the service.
The stakeholders had had a combative relationship with UCD colleagues in the past. I felt it was important to meet them halfway.
What I did
Built bridges with stakeholders
Stakeholders and ‘policy’ colleagues define what the team should build. They also help content designers come up with question wordings. I mapped out user flows with stakeholders to check their understanding then turned these into prototypes.
We tried to include stakeholders in User Research so that they could see the impact of our content and designs on service users. Our User Researcher would also run wash-up sessions at the end of each round of User Research to check their understanding.
Built a complex prototype based on the gov.uk design system
I used the GDS version of every pattern and component as a default then developed variations on these when the research told us we needed a different solution.
The existing service relied heavily on paper worksheets for accountants to calculate tax returns. I built calculations into the prototype to automate this process for the user.
Passed the design over to developers
With the business analyst, I took time to pass the design over to the developent team to build. We held a kick-off meeting to take them through the journey. I also mapped out user flows to explain sub-journeys.
I created a 'current' area of the prototype for developers to refer to. I kept this separate from the journeys we were currently testing. Finally, I coached content designers on how to hand over error messages, hidden text and URLs.
The outcome
By the time I left in July 2024 I was the longest-serving designer on the project. Our user research showed the changes made a positive impact on taxpayers and accountants.