DWP Diary Manager

The Problem

Universal Credit asked me to design a new diary management tool to replace an existing system that was difficult to use, inefficient and technically unstable.

The new system needed to be easy to use, efficient, technically robust and fully integrated within the Universal Credit intranet.

Understanding the Problem Space

Through heuristic evaluation, user interviews and shadowing sessions we identified major usability problems and mapped the wider service experience.

Design Sprint

A design sprint brought together stakeholders and real users to collaboratively explore solutions, generate ideas and storyboard the preferred concept.

Research Findings

Usability testing revealed key insights which were captured alongside the interface designs to help the team identify improvements and iterate the prototype.

Wireframes & Prototyping

Wireframes and prototypes allowed the team to test complex scheduling interactions and refine the interface through several rounds of user testing.

User Story Mapping

A user story map helped prioritise features for development by balancing user value with implementation complexity.

Results

The new diary management system dramatically improved efficiency for diary managers and work coaches, allowing appointments to be scheduled faster and more effectively.

The system requires little training, improves diary optimisation and is expected to save the government tens of millions of pounds.