Ministry of Justice: Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority (CICA)

Sector of work | Public

Designing a new online CICA application to be hosted on GOV.UK

To be introduced to the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority GOV.UK website
Created for the Ministry of Justice and the UK Government

Overview

CICA intended to move its entire user group from a legacy application system to a new online-only application. This new online application was to be hosted on the GOV.UK platform. Hence, it meant designing it following the GOV.UK Design System standards.

The online application had to be available to all users immediately as the intention was to close the legacy application system. As well as this, the longer-term aims of the project were to enable users to save their application and return to it at a later date and time to complete it.

Methods of work

Content design

Content strategy

Design ideation

Collaborative design

Wireframing

Prototyping

User flow maps

Interaction design

User research

My role in the project

  • Senior Content Designer

Stakeholders

GOV.UK

General public

Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority (CICA)

Ministry of Justice

February 2021 to December 2022

Project dates

  • Plan, design and build new CICA application

  • Work with legal and policy stakeholders to finalise designs and content

  • Test new designs with different user groups

  • Introduce save and return feature to the application

  • Follow GOV.UK design system and principles

  • Communicate work to CICA operations team

Objectives

  • Private beta

  • Public beta

Project phases

  • Miro

  • Figma

  • GOV.UK Prototype Kit

  • Jira

  • Confluence

  • SharePoint

  • Google workspace

  • Microsoft Office

  • SharePoint

Software and applications used

Project insights

Designing new save and return feature to test with users

2 rounds of user testing and 3 rounds of design iterations

Planned, designed and developed within 5 months

To be used as boiler plate for wider GOV UK Design System

1

Defining the challenge

To design, test and implement a new contribution-led feature allowing users to submit their own components, pages and patterns to the Ministry of Justice Design System.

The challenge

To design, develop and implement a functional online application form for victims of crime in England, Scotland or Wales to apply for compensation. This had to stay in line with GOV.UK Design System standards. The team also maintained a legacy application system for existing users.

Project objectives
The high-level objectives for the CICA application form project included:

  • migrating users from a legacy application to a new application

  • providing users with a better overall user experience

  • giving users the means to store their application progress and return to complete it later

Business requirements

The Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority is governed by a strict framework and policy guidance. All design work must follow this framework – from designing the user journey to the language we use to communicate with users. This was something that had a significant impact on content design in the project when trying to design trauma-informed content that put the users first.

Migrating users across to a new application
The business did not want to ‘switch off’ the legacy application form until the new online application was fully rolled out. We wanted to allow all users to complete any active application forms or have the opportunity to move across to the new system without disruption.

2

My work in the project

As the Senior Content Designer, I led all content-related design work on the project. As well as this, I also absorbed certain interaction and service design responsibilities. This included defining the user journey and designing the service blueprint.

Establishing content design at CICA

Identifying our users’ needs

Designing content for victims is a complex subject matter as there are several prerequisites to consider, such as:

  • how we address and speak to victims of crime

  • showing empathy for something you cannot truly understand unless you’ve also been the victim of a crime

Therefore, identifying our users’ needs, understanding them fully and continuing to speak to them throughout the project was paramount to successfully designing content to create a user-led solution.

To do this, I worked closely with our User Researcher. I was eager to understand the insights that had been gathered during the discovery phase of the project. At a high level, the insights told us users wanted:

  • not to be viewed solely through the lens of a “victim”

  • to understand what was happening at each step in their journey

  • contact us to discuss the progress and status of their application

  • to save their application and return to complete it later


Designing trauma-informed content

This was always going to be a key challenge to overcome as it requires:

  • understanding of what the user has been through

  • finding the right tone to communicate with the users

  • communicating key messaging users need to be aware of

To do this, I drew heavily on the user interviews conducted by our User Researcher during the Discovery phase of the project.

Here, I paid close attention to the terminology people used themselves and tried, where possible, to fit this language into the online application form so the users were able to resonate with it.


Introducing a rigorous review and feedback process

As is good practice, content design needs an arduous feedback process. This is especially true where complex subject matters exist. When I first started work at CICA, there was no set process for peer-reviewing content work. Or, conducting 2i on it. To overcome this, I introduced a 12-step feedback process that accounted for all key stakeholders to review the content at different stages of the design process.

Importance of the content community

As well as a solid feedback process in place, the content design community at the Ministry Of Justice also proved to be a great resource to lean on and seek advice from. With a pool of around 40 content designers, this offered more than just one set of eyes to check over work. This allowed me to tap into other Content Designers’:

  • expertise from working in other areas

  • experience from working with complex subject matters

  • collaborative working patterns to achieve the best content for users

This community was invaluable to me during the time I spent with CICA. I also drew heavily on feedback from the wider content community through paired writing sessions, 2i and peer review.

Improving the terminology used at CICA

One of the main challenges I sought to tackle in this role was the use of certain terminology and the language throughout the service. From how we spoke to users directly to what we said in the CICA  resources and assets. I was keen to move away from using terms such as “victim” – especially as users told us first-hand they did not like to be referred to in this manner. To drive improvements to terminology, language and tone, I held workshops with the project User Researcher as well as colleagues in Legal and Policy. These workshops allowed us to collaborate together to identify what changes I was able to make to language and terminology throughout the service.

Reassuring users we’ve received their application

A user sending their application to CICA was identified as one of the most important aspects of their journey. As such, I paid particular attention to the redesign of this page and the content within it.

In doing so, I approached designing this content from a hierarchical perspective. And began ranking the information according to the importance of what the user had to see from first to last. To do so, I conducted a card sorting exercise with the immediate Agile project team to rank the information from most important to least important.

I was conscious there was a lot of information to tell the user on this page. Hence, I introduced sub-headings and bullet lists to help break up the content and ensure it was easy to process for all users.

Giving users a means to contact us directly

One of the key areas I worked on at CICA was the contact page users landed on when wanting to get in touch. As the core user group for CICA is victims of crime, I felt it was important to strike the correct tone with this page in reassuring people about contacting us. And ensure it was easy for them to do so.

I worked closely on this task with the User Researcher and Product Owner as both were critical to completing the task. I sought previous user insights from the User Researcher where people had told us how they normally contacted CICA. And how they’d prefer to do this. I worked with the Product Owner to lobby the business to endorse and support these updates for users.

Finally, I worked alongside our colleagues in the Operations department tasked with answering users’ calls and emails daily. It was important to have them on board and aware of the changes as this was likely to increase calls and emails coming through the business.

3

Solving the challenge

Constraints and pain points

Working within a strict framework and policy guidance

Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority is governed by a strict framework and policy guidance owing to the organisation’s existing to provide compensation. Naturally, this makes designing content for this service somewhat complex.

As said by Content Design London: “Content design is about giving your audience what they want, when they need it, in the way they expect.”

This introduces limitations for what you can do when designing content within a set framework and guidance. For example, you’re restricted by what language you can use when talking to users as it has to ‘mirror’ language as set out in the guidance. Without involvement in designing this guidance, you’re already at a disadvantage in how you can speak to users. This is where the importance of forming key relationships with other stakeholders becomes pivotal to content design.

Building relationships with UCD and Legal/Policy

One of the major challenges I overcame when working with CICA was developing a key relationship between content design and legal and policy. When joining CICA, it was clear this relationship was not in the best place. And it’s no secret that both areas inherently clash with each other. But, knowing both areas also rely on each other to meet both our users’ needs and business requirements, I felt it was important to try and grow this relationship, nurture it and turn it into a partnership.

I achieved this by speaking directly to our Heads of Legal and Policy to stress the importance of both areas working closely together. Both stakeholders agreed and from this, we began meeting once each week to run ideas past one another. And gain a better understanding of each practice. As well as how they interact and work together to achieve user-led solutions that also work for the business.

4

Results of the project

✔

Project on time and within budget

✔

Users can add work via MoJ Design System

✔

Long-term feature roadmap established

✔

Additional features ready to roll out

Providing users with a better experience

The CICA project was released following the Agile approach for creating a minimum viable product (MVP) to release to the user group as soon as possible. It was considered what we had designed in UCD for MVP still represented a considerably better user experience than the existing legacy application systems users were being asked to submit to the business for compensation application reviews.

Launching the new CICA online application form

Continuous design iterations and releasing updates regularly

Once we’d released the first version of the new application, attention quickly turned to providing design iterations to factor into continuous and frequent releases. This allowed me to continue driving content improvements across the board as well as challenging the business on contentious content issues that focused primarily on the language and terminology used throughout the application itself.

5

Learnings from the project

Project review and learnings

What I learned from this project

I consider working at CICA in the capacity of Content Designer as a unique and wholly rewarding experience.

I base this feeling on being offered the opportunity to work on a service that should – in my view – truly be user-led in its entirety. And while subjects and services such as criminal injuries are not always as straightforward as you want them to be, bringing in a user-centred design team to work on a new service shows the commitment from GOV.UK, the MOJ and CICA to put users at the heart of what they do.

In this role, I learned the importance of:

  • stakeholder management

  • how relationship building was key to achieving buy-in for the business backing user-led solutions

    legal and policy safeguarding and protecting UCD

I also discovered a new-found respect and admiration for my colleagues in the Legal and Policy departments. It’s easy for a Content Designer to view these stakeholders as a ‘barrier’ to achieving user-led solutions. But, in reality, these stakeholders often want the same result as you. I found more often than not that we were all going to the same destination. We just had very different ways of getting there.

What I would do differently next time

1. Set out to understand project constraints earlier
As I’ve mentioned previously in this case study, when I started at CICA the relationship between UCD and Legal/Policy was reaching its potential. Which proved to be an early barrier in the project. Next time, I’d look to build a more enhanced understanding of what was achievable for content design and UCD first and foremost. Then, begin to approach the tangible content work from that perspective.

2. Push for more frequent service releases and updates
Working in an Agile project team, you realise the need for continuous service releases. This provides users with a better experience than they currently have. And drives learning about the user experience in real-time. At CICA, there were times when the UCD team pushed for ‘perfection’ in design instead of encouraging updates to the service.

3. Request a Service Designer for the UCD team
During this project, I felt the UCD team suffered to a degree in not having a Service Designer available to us. Instead, with what is already a complex subject matter, I found the UCD team having to pick up the responsibilities of a Service Designer. While this was a rewarding experience in learning new aspects of the Content Designer role, it was also challenging from a time perspective. As I spent a degree of my week picking up those responsibilities that often sit with the Service Designer.