Choose how to apply – Iteration and research

Posted on: 27 February 2019 Tags: UCAS research

Following on from the initial design.

Design changes

In this version we:

added more context to the page with a choice
added a ‘learn more’ disclosure to the choice page
expanded the journey with further Apply for teacher training (Apply) pages and emails

User research

In research users started on the Find postgraduate teacher training (Find) prototype and found a course they wanted to apply to. The first time they tried to apply they saw the ‘Apply with choice’ design. After stepping through a stubbed DfE Apply journey – showing account creation, sign up emails, screenshots of the application process and a submitted screen, we returned to Find to apply to another course. The next course they found showed only the option of applying through UCAS.

We tested this with 14 users.

Lookback

Key findings

For people who’ve never applied to teacher training, when given a choice about two application services, no users were turned away by that choice. All of them would continue to apply.

For people who applied using DfE Apply, applying again through UCAS represents a pain point. We hypothesise that by sending applicants wishing to apply to many courses directly to UCAS we can reduce the risk of that pain point.