Monday
Spent a bit of time figuring out a starting point for our MMVP.
Our prototype, as it’s evolved, incorporates as yet unbuilt features. There are differences in the start of a user’s journey into the 111 product (as opposed to the child journey for emergency prescriptions), as well as some information gathering routines.
Why this difference?
To realise a new feature or journey, the design process looks at the product holistically. It’s advantageous to spot existing routines and layouts which can be modularised. What pieces and views can be used across journeys?
We also know there will be varying points in individual user journeys where it’s useful to gather a single piece of information (date of birth or postcode for example). Some journeys will require more information in total than others.
By splitting information gathering into “one task per page” modules (in contrast to long “personal details” pages containing multiple tasks), we’re allowing for flexibility in where, when, and how much information we can ask for in any given journey. We’re obviously also reaping all the gains of best-practice form creation and a mobile-first approach.
This holistic view means, when looking at creating particular journeys, we’re tweaking things that have an affect across already existing features. Translating a prototype into a feature release requires a lot of splitting our “epic” into tasks of a reasonable scale, and being able to bring these into sprints.
At the same time, the product has to handle pressure from stakeholders to deliver new features. Our roadmap looks like a tightrope walk between new-shiny-feature MVP delivery and the necessary iteration that every product requires to improve.
So. Starting to figure it out. Working out the chunks.
Tuesday
Sprint day. Another presentation of our “high confidence level but not that great really when you think about it” (see all previous posts about grappling with services) prototype.
Wednesday
New sprint. As well as moving onward with chunking up the emergency prescription feature, we did a team review of our design work on multiple service display.
This was something we initially tackled as part of our emergency disposition work earlier in the year. But as our new feature had exposed what is essentially a new service type we thought it’d be worth going over them. For this sort of thing online prototypes plus an “online shared whiteboard” tool prove invaluable — especially as we’re a distributed team.
Thursday
Reviewing the review! There’s things to revisit and examine, so assembling a list of those.
Also looking at our “fail state” pages. Assembling a collection of them starting to look at where we can have (again) a modular approach.
Friday
Nuthin.