A couple of weeks ago we published a short film about the flood digital service.
This second film shows how the service team works and how they put users at the heart of what they do to continually improve how people can find information about flooding online.
The video also looks at how agile working has benefited the team in developing the flood digital service.
There's a text transcript below, if you’d prefer to read one.
User-driven service design and agile working in @EnvAgency's flood digital service @DefraGovUK @BassisBetsy @YiannisSeglias @gdsteam pic.twitter.com/ifs0i7zqLf
— Defra digital, data, technology and security (@DefraDigital) August 18, 2017
Title: Flood digital team, user-driven service design
Michael Lyons, Content Designer: We’ve met people all over the county who have suffered massive losses. Much of the user research we have done has involved meeting people who have been profoundly affected by a flood event. There’s a tremendously human side to what we’re doing in those situations. You do have to have a real empathy with what they’ve gone through.
Helen Eden, Delivery Manager: To actually see them there and using it and interpreting it – sometimes in the way we intended and sometimes not and we think “oh – why didn’t we think of that?” and really use that as tangible, usable evidence to move on and make a better product for our users. But at the end of the day it’s real people’s lives that have been affected and its good to be reminded of that.
Using agile to deliver more
Frazer Rhodes, Service Owner: I'm the sort of person that gets a buzz out of delivering quickly. We’re breaking down the work into small chunks – it means you’re constantly getting that success factor. Delivering something, delivering it live, getting user feedback, connecting with real users and then seeing really positive feedback.
Helen Eden, Delivery Manager: Don’t be afraid of making mistakes. Get something out of the door. Get it under as many people’s noses as you can so you’re getting real people’s feedback – see their eyes open and see the difference it makes.
Michael Lyons, Content Designer: On a human level there’s a real tragic aspect to this. Being able to understand these experiences that people are having and the idea then that you’re translating that into something that might benefit people or might help people in the future that in itself is a great aspect of what we do. It’s very gratifying as well.
Frazer Rhodes, Service Owner: agile way of working is not for everybody. We had to break the mould in terms of delivering more traditional projects. We’re pushing boundaries in terms of how we operate. It takes a certain mind-set – part of that mind-set is trust. If you’ve got mutual respect and trust that kind of fosters a good way of working and good team working. We’ve got a very diverse bunch and that helps in itself in that if you have diversity you’re likely to get better products.
Check your flood risk at flood-warning-information-service.gov.uk
