User testing to improve our apps

Last summer we held a care leavers app co-production session with care experienced young people of Greater Manchester's Combined Authority (GMCA). The purpose of this was to involve the young people right from the start in the making of their app. This creates a strong sense of ownership and ensures they get what they truly want and not an app based on a designer's assumptions about them. In turn they will be more likely to turn to the app for the advice and guidance it has been designed to provide.

At focusgov we don't just churn out digital solutions and leave you alone to do the rest. Our "tech 4 good" approach means we are emotionally invested and we will continue to support you with the success and growth of your app.

For GMCA, the time has come to analyse and evaluate their app, see if it meets goals set and take an overall look at it, comparing it against the user and local authority requirements.

To do this, as focusgov's designer, I hosted a successful usability testing session. In these sessions I set tasks that encourage users to navigate the app then I gather their feedback. Making sure participants realise how valued their input is, I pay close attention to all they have to say while asking myself the questions;

- How are our users responding to the app?
- What is going well? What isn’t working?
- Did the app solve the users problem?
- What can be improved and how?
- Are local authority goals met? Why or why not?

It’s crucial to ensure that design decisions I'm making are being guided and informed by what I know about the users and the problem at hand. When trying to determine how users will interact with the app, I like to understand;

- The medium they will be using (i.e. android / iPhone / Tablet)
- Their environment in which they'll interact with the app
- Their emotional state at each phase in the user journey

The best thing I can do in these sessions? Listen. These incredible care experienced young people deserve to be heard and so often are not. So I take a step back and I listen to what they want to share with me, observing both their verbal and non-verbal reactions and documenting their responses in detail.

All this invaluable information gathered from the user centred design (UCD) process is used to inform design choices when applying app improvements and updates.

In tweaking and fixing aspects of the app that perhaps didn’t work the way users originally hoped, we make impactful changes to better serve them.

Even after your care leavers app is developed and released, further evaluation and iteration is strongly advised if you strive to deliver your young people a reliable source of support they can feel secure in using.