Weeknotes 27/09/2024

We’re nearing the end of September, which means soon we’ll be welcoming October, our favourite month. Who doesn’t love an excuse to dive into the realm of spooky films and read all the horror and mystery?! But for now, here’s the top scares of this week in the Digital Team…

Forms standardisation

Kim, Phil and Sam continue work on forms standardisation, this week focusing on the save and continue message.

‘Save and continue’ means users can save a form part-way through and have a unique link sent to them to continue it later. Some of our forms – environmental permits applications, for example - are complex. We know users of these types of forms make use of this feature and we’ve had feedback that they find it helps them.

The save and continue flow involves several user interactions:

• choosing the save and continue option
• an on screen message asking the user to enter an email address
• after entering the email address, another on screen message to tell the user what happens next
• receiving the secure link by email

Kim, Sam and Phil found that flow was a little disjointed because, at each point, there was too much content getting in the way of the task. Content was reworded and simplified and they’ll now roll it out across all forms that have this feature enabled.

New learning resources coming soon to a LMS near you…

The only thing scarier than what you do know, is what you don’t know!

This week, work has continued with the creation and outlining of new content, coming soon to a Learning Management System near you! We wanted to share some of the considerations that we have in mind as we build out this content.

As with everything we do in our team, user research is at the heart of our work. This means delving into the feedback we have received over the past year, and reflecting on areas of difficulty that we see regularly on the frontlines, like the Digital Team inbox.

Our focus on user feedback has allowed us to plan content that we know our users will benefit from. We want to support people creating content with the intention of publishing it to the website and help make their goals a reality.

It’s Organ Donation Week 2024!

Every day in the UK, someone dies waiting for an organ transplant, because there just aren’t enough organ donors.

There are currently more than 7000 people waiting for an organ transplant in the UK, and while more people from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds are receiving transplants than ever before, Black and Asian patients still wait longer than White patients for a transplant because the most suitable match is likely to come from a donor of the same ethnicity.

Organ donation is the gift of an organ to help someone who needs a transplant. Thousands of lives in the UK are saved or transformed each year by organ transplants.

Organs that can be donated by people who have died include heart, lungs, kidneys, pancreas, liver and small bowel.

Tissue such as skin, bone and heart valves can also be used to save and improve people’s lives, and corneas can help to restore people’s sight. If you want to become a donor after you die, you could save and improve the lives of up to nine people through organ donation and even more if you also donate tissue.

This year, 2024, the NHS Organ Donor Register celebrates its 30th birthday, so for Organ Donation Week they are calling for as many local landmarks and buildings across the country to turn pink, to help raise awareness of the incredible gift of organ donation, and to encourage people to confirm their decision on the register.

If you see your town’s landmarks turn pink this weekend, please show your support for this important cause. For more information and to get involved, raise awareness and help save lives over on the Organ Donation website.

Marine licensing transformation

A big week for the project this week, as the first pieces of new content went live!

After many months of researching, drafting, checking, cross-checking, fact verifying, form revising and testing testing testing, the trimmed down band 1 marine licence section of the site is now available for the public to access.

Along with a more concise main page enabling the user to more easily determine whether their project falls into this band or not, there is also now clear guidance on mapping and coordinates, writing method statements, and communicating with consultees. The application form has been overhauled too, with better question flow, plainer language, links to the new guidance (in case they skipped it earlier!) and a number of other features.

Our aim is to set the applicant up for success by making sure they understand what we need from them and why. This should result in a significant reduction in the amount of back and forth communication between them and the marine licensing team, and improve the experience for both sides.

We’re now waiting for the first real world applicant to try it out, but as this is not a high volume service, we don’t know when this might happen. It could be weeks, or even months..! So in the meantime, it’s on to the next stage of our roadmap and a new challenge.

Species improvements

Phil and Sam continue to work closely with colleagues from NRW’s permit reform group on improvements to the species licensing service.

They’ve been mapping out the bird licensing application forms (currently in Word attached to a web page). They’ve identified many commonalities across the five forms as well as content that could be better handled at a different part of the user journey. This is leaning them towards testing the hypothesis that if there is one way in to an application - and users are routed through a path that suits their task - the licensing team will receive better quality applications.

For the content challenge, Phil and Sam are thinking about groupings – should this be by legislation, licence type, task, species or even internal reference numbers. We always lean towards task first, but, as most applicants are ecologists, is that what they need? James will be doing user research with ecologists soon and this will give Phil and Sam the insight they need.

Preparing to celebrate Calan Gaeaf (Welsh Halloween)

Others celebrate Halloween on 31 October, but in Wales it’s Calan Gaeaf, the first day of winter. Our ancestors believed that on this day, the door between their world and the next was opened. They paid tribute to the dead, with dancing around the village fire, while people wore masks to ward off evil spirits.

These days, it’s more light hearted, with people dressing as spooky creatures and children heading out for trick-or-treating. But do you know the Welsh roots of this autumnal festival?

Nos Galan Gaeaf, as it’s called in Wales, has its roots in centuries of tradition. Calan Gaeaf takes place on 1 November and is traditionally celebrated as the first day of winter.

With summer at an end, the harvest brought safely in, and shorter days and longer nights taking hold, Calan Gaeaf was a rousing celebration of all that had gone before. It was also a nod towards what was to come - the death of nature and a hard winter, but with the promise of spring and rebirth.

Naturally, the night before Calan Gaeaf took on special significance too. In Wales, it is called Nos Galan Gaeaf. It is a night people believe the spirits walk; a night when the veil between the living and the dead drops.

Other things we’ve been working on…

• Shaun has been working on new private sewage system guidance which was published this week
• Shaun has also been working on installations application forms for change, transfer, surrender
• Water quality web content audit
• Shaun started work on the best available techniques for industry web content
• Our publishing team have set several key reports live on the website this week, after making them accessible for our users
• Alex and Sam are meeting with Naomi (SME for permitting reform group) to workshop the scope detailed in Mural for next steps for NRW’s approach to digital payments.