This week’s show and tell was about the alpha Essex work, the project to consolidate Essex County Council’s disparate web estate into one single, user-focussed site.
We were in the ‘innovation space’, across the way from our usual home in C309. Helen West presented an update on the ECC website ‘alpha’, including:
- A recap of the alpha scope and progress
- Feedback and lessons learned from recent user research
- A walkthrough and demo of the alpha prototype
Helen talked us through the quick creation of the prototype we’ve taken to users. The last two weeks have been busy with user research, and the insight and interpretation sessions which follow those. Based on that user research we have made several sets of changes which we’ll be testing again with users next week.
Questions and answer session
Some points included:
- The value of watching user’s behaviour -- one attendee recalled user testing using 2 way mirrors back in the 1990s while working for a bank, and remarked on its efficacy
- Questions regarding the branding of the prototype and to what degree images would be used on the site - Helen explained that these would - probably - be few and far between. One of the main functions of the site is as a content repository, whose information may surface in several different places
- Whether our prototype was mobile responsive
- How the new information architecture was derived
- Who was involved in card sorting
Helen will be presenting an update in 2 weeks time at the show and tell, and will be blogging in more detail about the Alpha project after that show and tell. Put it in your diaries!
Leave a comment