Evaluation Registry

Prime Minister’s Delivery Unit, Cabinet Office

The Prime Minister’s Delivery Unit is part of the Cabinet Office. It provides support to the Prime Minister, driving the delivery of their priority projects. The Evaluation Registry was a new service owned by the Evaluation Task Force. It was designed to improve the quality and accessibility of policy evaluations across government.

My role

  • Review existing user research to draw out user insights and use these to improve the design

  • Create a content style guide for the Registry to ensure consistent, accessible design

  • Co-design the next iteration of the content with an evaluation expert

The process

Joining the project in flight, I started by reviewing the existing user research to understand the who the users were and the rationale behind design decisions. I identified a mismatch between the primary user group the content within the service. The content had been written for experienced evaluation experts, but the primary audience were new professionals and junior staff. A particular area of concern was the supporting text which was writing for experts and not performing its role of guiding novice evaluators through the process.

Conducting a review of the content I draw from the GOV.UK style guide to create a simple template that prioritised important information, promoted consistency, and encouraged that unnecessary text be removed. To get buy-in for this change of approach from the service owner I focused on how the change would support their business goal of improving evaluations across government. I made a case for the link between accessible user-centre content and better data collection, pointing to successful services across government to back-up my argument. I also introduced the concept of co-design to the team. Sitting down with evaluation experts to write text to the template was a way to ensure the final text balanced necessary technical information with accessible, user focused content.

The outcome

I achieved full backing of the Evaluation Task Force for my approach, and secured a commitment to user-centred design going forward. The team activity participated in the co-design of the supporting text, and could see the value immediately. The team entered private beta with a clear understanding of how designing for user needs would support business objectives, and were open to having their assumptions challenged and make further changes based on the insight gathered.