Redeveloping the CDPS website based on user needs

The first CDPS website was built and launched in 2020, and since then, our users’ needs have changed, and we needed to conduct user research to deliver a website that better met those needs.

The aim of this project was to launch a new version of the CDPS website that aligned with our service offering and supported our mission to support digital public services in Wales.

Our research found that external users found our website difficult to use and find what they were looking for. 

CDPS staff managing the website felt they needed more functionality to create a better user experience, as our content management system was clunky and made publishing and editing content time-consuming. 

We ran a discovery to look at any improvements that could be made to the website and conducted user research to validate our hypothesis. In alpha, we built prototypes and then launched a public beta where we conducted user testing before launching in August 2023.

CDPS built a small team including a senior responsible owner, delivery manager, product manager, content designer and visual designer. 

Our external supplier was Hoffi, a user-centred brand design agency, who were embedded in the team from the start so we could work together throughout the project, as typically, website developers only come on board at the build stage. 

We also worked with the Welsh Government GEL (Global Experience Language) team who helped ensure the GOV.WALES design standards were met and that all new content and functionality was accessible.

Discovery 

During discovery, we investigated our users and the problems they had using our website. These improvements were categorised and scored based on priority. 

Our early results showed our users were frustrated we had no search function and a lack of tags on pages and blog posts to filter through. 

We had an “acclimatise” interactive workshop where we identified which types of content we produce, what our strengths and weaknesses are, what we feel the current site does well and what it could improve on, and who we think our users are. This helped us realise who we need to talk to more (our external users), and how we could reach them. 

We created user stories based on what our users want and need to do on our website. 

• Chiefs – users who are senior in their role and control their whole organisation or multiple departments, usually would have the final say in any large decision. 

• Leaders – users who are usually a head of department or director, and decision making, and budget control is part of their day-to-day job. 

• Managers – users who are responsible for managing a specific department, usually have duties such as conducting performance reviews and making decisions. 

• Deliverers – users who usually follow a process or procedure in their day-to-day job. 

• CDPS – users who work at CDPS, covering departments including communications, skills and capability, delivery, user-centred design, operations, and recruitment. 

After investigating our users and the problems they had using our website, we had a clear understanding of what our users wanted from our website. 

Alpha 

During alpha, we created prototypes to enable further feedback from our stakeholders, and to help further prioritise improvements. 

We investigated technical and functional options, and explored the content we could have on the new website. 

We held a content workshop where we reviewed the menu, page structure and layout of the new website and kept our user needs at the core of every design decision. This allowed us to create a menu structure that allows our users to find information more easily (rather than just building a website that reflects our own internal departments). 

It became clear that we would need to create a large amount of new content. We decided we would run a public beta (a “soft” launch) to gain feedback from our users while we were still building. 

Beta 

During beta, we made a number of improvements and created our minimum viable product website. 

Beta focused on building the “Courses and events”, “Our work” and “Guidance and standards” pages of the new website, creating a search function, adding visual and design elements, integrating sign up forms from our customer relationship management system, HubSpot, and moving content across from our old website. 

Beta testing 

This is when real users get to test a feature or function before launch to identify any issues. 

Having identified priority users, user stories and content areas for testing, the team focused on the development of tasks and questions for user testing and the recruitment of external users. 

In testing, we needed a range of users that met our personas and our requirements for accessibility and Welsh language testing. 

After testing, the team agreed on the actions and improvements we needed to make before launch. During this time, we also received an audit report from the GEL team with recommendations to ensure GEL compliancy. We also had external accessibility testing done from the Digital Accessibility Centre who were able to test with users with a wide variety of accessibility needs and reported back to us on what could be improved before launch. We shared our final iteration of the website with the GEL team and received approval to launch our beta site. 

We moved the beta site to the GOV.WALES domain and embedded a feedback form into our homepage to receive feedback from users. This was a great way to receive instant feedback immediately after users had visited the website. 

Ahead of launch, we integrated our website with Hotjar and Google Analytics, which showed us how users were using the website and how they were discovering our content. 

Live 

We launched in August 2023 and closed the beta site. 

What worked well was embedding the website development team from the start, as we were able to work on things in real time and they were able to advise on what was doable and how long it would take, helping us to plan our workload and sprints. 

What also worked well was getting external users to take part in the research, lots of people were interested in helping from across Wales and the UK and we found that many other organisations are also looking to redevelop their website and wanted to learn from us. We found promoting our work and show and tells on social media and external Slack channels hugely beneficial.  

We also agreed that there had been fair treatment of the Welsh language when working together and externally with partners as we tested pages in Welsh and conducted user research in their language of choice too.

For improvements, we agreed that we could have improved our time efficiency as there was some elements of the sprints which we could have begun to look at, at an earlier stage, such as writing new content, as in addition to building a new website, a lot of work was needed on editing old content and creating new content. 

Now the website is live, a website product team has been set up who will regularly conduct user research with internal and external users and work with Hoffi to make any improvements.

We are also in the process of setting up content governance and training more content editors so more people can write and edit content for the website and supporting service owners internally at CDPS to manage their own sections of the website.