We worked with SSCL in strategising, designing, and building their internal operations product, myHub.
SSCL are a leader in critical business support services, partnering with Government, Police, and the Ministry of Defence across the UK. We worked with SSCL in strategising, designing, and building their internal operations product, myHub.
The myHub portal offers instant information, live webchat and chatbots providing real time help, advice and guidance serving 17 central Government bodies and up to 300,000 potential users, answering queries across HR, IT, Recruitment, Finance and Accounting services.
I led ideation, UX, and design application (as the Principal Product Designer) within the project team in building out myHub’s 3rd generation and deploying it across 17 central Government bodies and up to 300,000 potential users.
Product
Web
Skills
UX Design, UI Design, Interaction Design
Role
Design Lead
Timeline
2020 - 2023
Team
Toby Margetts, Jake White, Carl Johnson
01
SSCL & The UK Gov recognised that the portal government employees were using on a day to day basis delivered a user experience that didn't serve it's purpose, using third party software redirects within the 'portal', effectively rendering myHub a sign posting repository.
With over 300,000 users relying on a portal that often caused more confusion than task execution, it was deemed a high priority to streamline processes and vastly improve how users operated within the system.
Currently, internal departments were handling several hundreds of phone calls daily to assist tasks that were within capacity of conduction within the hub, but the user experience simply wasn't streamlined and simple enough to execute them.
02
A dedicated project team was assembled by Squiz & SSCL, and the task for myHub 3.0 was to take all of the issues from the backlog and evolve the product further.
Key areas of focus within my role involved a data driven restructure of the IA, a full aesthetic makeover to align with the new brand, the addition of multiple tasks and user journeys, personalisation including SSO and a new user dashboard, a new design system, and many more tasks.
Thanks to our MVP versions, we had been running Hotjar and google analytics api’s beneath the hood. Through use of Funnelback, we also had a consistent log of data surrounding what users were searching for, and how successful they were in doing so.
Key stakeholders in the project stressed prior to any research and data being presented that they were keen on myHubs third iteration to take a huge step in personalisation and collaboration.
We conducted a competitor audit to further improve our understanding of self-service products. We identified multiple ways in which these competitors provide great self-service experiences:
1. Personalisation sits at the forefront of providing the most impactful self-service functionality
2. Data visualisation engages users into completing outstanding tasks
3. Chatbots and decision tree technology is hugely efficient as a navigational assistant
4. Advanced search techniques remove multiple steps in information discovery
5. Too much information within a single viewport is overwhelming within a dashboard or a portal
03
An improved User Experience
We collected enough data to support our case for refining the look and feel of myHub, believing users needed a vastly de-convoluted platform to allow them to sort information without dodging page clutter. This, alongside a revised and updated IA (information architecture) to simplify how users navigate their way through to task execution and comms pages.
SSO (Single Sign On)
With personalisation at the forefront of the project requirements, we concluded that the application of SSO would allow for users to access data, execute tasks, and share important information with colleagues. SSO provided a solution for management and senior figures within government bodies to approve requests, prompt task completion, and sign off works (as well as many other use cases).
AWS Chatbot
Through the application of an AWS chatbot, SSCL would be able to provide customers a guided experience, operating with speed and knowledge. Our datastore would allow the chatbot to deliver knowledge based on the users personal data. Should a piece of data or information not be available through the implementation of the chatbot, the user would be redirected to the correct department to receive further assistance.
04
From the release of myHubs 3rd iteration, myHub went from serving 17 to 22 central Government bodies and up to 300,000 potential users, answering queries across HR, IT, Recruitment, Finance and Accounting services.
To date, myHub has contributed to in excess of £100million in government savings, and is forecast to exceed over £400million of government savings by the end of October 2023.
