Listen, learn, create great apps

Designing apps that exist to support care experienced young people, is a huge responsibility and one we want to get right.

Transitioning to adulthood is a difficult stage in life even for those fortunate enough to have stable, parental guidance. focusgov’s Care Leavers App provides 24/7 access to information, advice, local events, helpful organisations and more, so that these incredible young people get the help they need when they need it. To ensure our app is a reliable resource they feel safe turning to and enjoy using, it is their voice we listen to.

As part of the design process, I first host a co-production session in which I work closely with care experienced young people. Recently I had the pleasure of spending some time with the young care leavers of North Yorkshire and what a tremendous group they are! Their council has demonstrated some serious corporate parenting skills and approached us to design and build their app. In these sessions we discuss apps and how they interact with them, icons, colours, fonts, logos, app names, languages, tone of voice and so on. Not to mention the occasional tangent once everyone has relaxed and feels able to talk comfortably and freely, which by the way is a huge development considering these things can sometimes start with people shrinking in to their seat, scared to participate!

To be a good designer I can’t rely on creative vision alone. I also need to demonstrate an understanding of people and psychology. When I show these young people (the users) that we can help and provide something that will make their lives easier, they in turn help me by sharing their needs and wants. I place a high value on the thoughts and feelings of these admirable young people. They have had to deal with tough life situations that many of their peers haven’t, and as a result have a found a strength and wisdom which I am continuously learning from.

There are plenty of different user experience (UX) research methods but our engagement sessions prove successful time after time, both in gaining in-depth feedback and building relationships with our users which in turn gets them more invested in the app. Conducting generative research early on helps us better understand people’s motivations, needs, and pain points. It means I’m heading down the right design-path from the get-go.

To be a great designer you must first become a great listener. A strong design makes the lives of its users better, it helps them, achieves what it should and provides a fun experience. Listening to users is the key to increased usability and user engagement. The only way to truly understand what users need is to listen to them. And that's exactly what we here at focusgov do.