Student Finance England served 1.3m Student applications each year, with 3m parents and partners involved in the transaction.
The original student loans digital service saw 64% customer dissatisfaction, and 3.6 calls per student application = £2.9m in avoidable contact or 3% of the SLC annual budget
In 2010 Government Digital Services (GDS) was established. The student finance service was named in a daming report calling for ‘revolution not evolution’.
I was the UX in the exemplar team, redesigning the service using user-centred & agile methods.
The version launched on GOV.uk had user experience considered throughout.
I researched with students on campus, I called parents and partners of students. As part of our design team, I wireframed, prototyped, tested and iterated.
This resulted in a 30% reduction in inbound calls and saw satisfaction pivot to 82.%. I demonstrated services that were easier to use, are cheaper to run.
After demonstrating success using user-centred methods, I grew the UX team, set up a lab in the office and researched with staff and students there.
Skills used:
- Card sorting
- AB testing
- Wireframe
- Prototypes (low-high fidelity)
- Usability testing
- Surveys
- Accessibility audits
- Personas
- Journey mapping
- Responsive design
