HMRC Merchandise Online Digital Service
Providing traders with a service to declare imports and exports online.
Back to My Work
Providing traders with a service to declare imports and exports online.
Back to My Work
CLIENT
HMRC
DATE
2020-2021
ROLES
UX designCOLLABORATORS
Performance AnalystThis EU-exit project provided a challenge when it came to delivering on time and with so many policy changes impacting the design. Making pleasant tasks user friendly can be tough but making unpleasant tasks user friendly really makes a designer feel alive! I managed the design plan for the project, responsible for User Research and Content Design colleagues.
Stakeholder engagement, Miro planning, GDS prototyping, User testing, Team management
Part of the declaration.
My second week in this team kicked off with a bang, a baptism of fire which involed presenting to 120+ Border Force staff. This task required the most out of my interpersonal skills as this user group was disgruntled at the thought of a service doing part of their job, but also relieved that their busy work loads were going to be lightened.
Employing empathy paid off, as Border Force staff combined with user interviews during the discovery phase proved crucial when producing our service map and starting to map out a user journey.
Service map.
Although Border Force staff were helpful, they didn’t make up the primary user groups that would be using the service. Our users that we would test with included:
User flow for an importer.
After several rounds of testing with traders from a range of digital skill levels as well as those with accessibility needs, we were iterating on the prototype until our live beta date was announced along with some policy changes. These changes included adding dynamic content to suit custom agents, origins of goods questions and more.
Our approach at this stage was simple, focus on an MVP for live beta and use the data and further testing to improve the service once live. We ran regular show and tells with stakeholders who greatly appreciated the consistent updates.
Live beta was launched successully with changes being made right up to the final day. The next stage was a chance for us to add improvements that fell outside of MVP scope.
Graphics produced for show and tells.
Doing live demos for stakeholders.
Live beta was incredibly useful as it allowed us to obtain large amounts of data from our performance analyst colleagues, whilst testing improved designs. We used insights gained to present findings back to stakeholers and once again, improved the product before launch. After passing the rigourous GDS assessment first time, the service went live and was handed over the live services team. During live beta, we managed to increase import completions by 165%, export completions by 231% and CSAT scores by 50%.
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