Ofsted is the Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills. It inspects services providing education and skills for learners of all ages. We also inspect and regulate services that care for children and young people.

This was a fun project to work on. Very satisfying. Ofsted called me in to turn paper application processes into a combined online journey. This covered orphanages, children’s homes and others who want to work with children.

The problem was the existing process. It had people in tears on the helpline. In theory, the 70-page manual guided applicants through the process step-by-step. I was able to prove that it required a post-graduate reading ability to understand.

User research and stakeholder research showed a culture of helping applicants succeed. A desperate situation for all involved.

Together with a service designer, user researcher, UX designer and product owner, I developed a better solution. Our online application form used plain English, examples and help text. It asked only relevant and unambiguous questions.

The result was a much improved user experience, with far fewer mistakes and less time spent helping applicants.