To help CRE8IVE implement design thinking to get closer to users’ heart and understand the problems better, I took on the role of a user researcher on their website redevelopment project for the Office of the Federal Safety Commissioner. My possibilities included:
1) Conducted stakeholder research focus group with around 10 stakeholders to identify the groups of users and how to measure success.
2) Conducted 4 depth interviews with users including accreditation applicants, government agencies and sub-contractors.
3) Collected findings and insights with their experience, behaviour, needs and expectation when using / searching for information / using functions on the website.
4) Distilled the insight data above into three personas.
5) Customer Journey Mapping to determine gaps in expectations and performance during the logical journey of users to find information / use functions on the website.
To identify the users, we discussed about the following questions during the focus group:
- Who in your team will use the platform?
- Who are the external stakeholders?
- What content do they seek?
- What is their background when it comes to Web Technology?
And so on…
The result of the discussion indicated that the most important and traffic dense users of the site are applicants (both potential and past ones), government agencies and sub-contractors.
Government Agency
“Tender documents will be useful.”
“It will be good if the contact detail of the accredited companies is provided.”
“The website should also suggest companies to get accredited and government agencies to choose from the accredited companies for safety’s sake, not only the fact that you’re required to do so.”
Users gain good insight about “what we require in a builder” and “what does the accreditation involve” after visiting the website.
Users noticed that the health and requirement standard for city councils is different from the Scheme (Federal Standard) and suggested that the website should have an explanation about it.
The only way for a user to find out that they need to find a builder accredited under the scheme is through GC21, which is too late.
Accreditation Applicant
“The goal of our business is to get accredited and succeed in government projects and federal funded work, therefore, chasing OFSC is important in the business.”
“I think I went to the ‘Applying for Accreditation’ tab, followed the tab, and it took me directly to FSC Online.”
“We put a lot of effort into completing the word document and emailing it, but then were told the whole process is online, so we spent a lot of time and effort transferring.”
“I have to call someone to make sure the reporting instruction online is accurate.”
“The website navigation is generally simple and straight forward.”
“Information is fairly organised and easy to find on the website.”
“Some registered clients (city councils) were not up on the list yet, one user had to call OFSC to sort out this problem when reporting.”
Sub-contractors
“I’m not sure if we’re accredited.”… “Oh wait… I’m pretty sure we are…”
“I have never seen the OFSC website.”
“I am looking at Workplace Health and Safety Queensland link, and I find it very useful.”
“It will be good if I can find some templates of Safe Work Statement and safety data sheets to download.”
Key Recommendations
• Advertise and educate the general industry or those who might get involved about “who should get accredited” and “why you should get accredited”.
• The funding recipient suggested that the accredited companies list should have company contact details and a link to the company websites.
• It is good if the list of accredited companies is searchable and broken down according to regions, so they can specify location of companies when they search.
• The funding recipient suggests two ways to break the list of companies up into different regions:
-By state
-By a mix of inter-/partial state regions and states: “Southern NSW, ACT and Victoria”, “Northern NSW and Southern Queensland”, “Northern Queensland”, “SA”, “WA”, “NT”, and “Tasmania”.
• The funding recipient suggests the ability to be able to refine on the size of the companies when searching (e.g. 1-5 employees or 100+ employees).
• Remove the old documents that may confuse the accreditation applicants.
• The funding recipient hopes to have explanation on the website about why they need to find accredited companies.
• The list of registered clients and accredited builders should update more frequently.
• Make the reporting instructions look more updated and trustable.
• Make Safe Work Australia one of the useful links on the home page.
• Have some templates of Safe Work Statement and safety data sheets to download for the sub-contractors.
Government Agency - Daniel, works at a city council in regional NSW; received a 10-million-dollar federal government funding on a construction project. He did not have any knowledge of the Scheme beforehand and didn’t know they need to find a building company accredited under the Scheme to be able to work on this project.
Daniel uses the OFSC website to write specifications and look for accredited companies. He also spends a huge amount of time on the website finding out what the Scheme “means”.
Main Devices: Smartphones
Needs:
• To find out what the Scheme is
• To know beforehand whether they need an accredited builder
• To find accredited builders
Expectations:
• To easily access information about “why accredited builder”
• To easily find an accredited builder without hassle
• To easily contact the accredited builders
Accreditation Applicant - James, a QSE officer of a construction business in NSW. He has been personally involved in other businesses before, where he has gone through the process of getting accredited. But it’s the first time for this construction business to get accredited, and James is also involved in auditing this time.
James applies for the accreditation and research about the guidance material online, and he took a lot of time to complete the cumbersome application.
The auditing process is also done online. James had to engage an “external consultant” who is more experienced to help with auditing and reporting.
He has just put in their bi-annual report. With the help of the consultant, the process was simple with viable information. But even though his experience is all positive up to now, he is nervous about the Scheme Report. As he heard it’s very difficult and takes much more hassle to complete.
Main Devices: Smartphones
Needs:
• To have instructions and explanations about how to get accredited
• Find out what the Scheme is
• Find out information about reporting and auditing once accredited
Expectations:
• Hassle-free accreditation application
• Accurate and reliable reporting instructions
Sub-contractor - Michael, employee of a small construction company, is sub-contracted under another big construction company on a project funded by the government. The company Michael’s working for is not accredited under the Scheme, nor has he heard of OFSC or seen the FSC website before.
They have only heard of the Scheme from the bigger builders, such as their primary contractor. In terms of Workplace Health and Safety, their company brings in an independent person to do training for the employees. The auditing is done by their primary contractor company, but he was hoping to have more understanding and knowledge about Safe Work and the auditing process.
Devices: Smartphones
Needs:
• To have safety data sheets to download
• To be led to information about Safe Work Australia
Expectations:
• To be guided through the auditing process
• To be guided through to complete Safe Work Statement
• To learn more about workplace safety in general
These journey maps determined gaps in expectations and performance during the logical journey of users to find information and use functions on the website.