User research about digital approaches to care information for Kirklees Council
We were commissioned by Kirklees Council, in partnership with the Local Government Association and NHS Digital, to carry out user research as part of a discovery into the ways people access information about their care.
Care information is primarily accessed over the phone or in person. Kirklees Council wanted to know whether digital services could supplement existing services to better improve customer experience.
Our work sought to understand the current experiences of Adult Social Care Service users and carers, as well as their potential needs from any digital service. It was also important to understand the benefits and barriers that digital solutions or services could mean to people who use the existing services.
We conducted a number of user research activities with Adult Social Care Service users and carers, including 1-2-1 interviews, two experience mapping workshops and a user experience survey. The research produced 40 distinct user stories, led to the creation of five individual user journey experience maps and produced numerous insights into the needs of current service users.
The research included some users with low levels of digital literacy and some more vulnerable users. We adapted our methods to account for these users, including by providing additional individual support at workshops, and by offering assisted digital completion of the user experience survey, to ensure that people with lower digital literacy were not excluded from the research.
The findings from the user research meant that Kirklees Council were able to progress with the Discovery, using the insights to quickly create prototypes for an improved service. The below video shows the full findings of Kirklees’ Discovery.
