Lines of questioning — Alpha design

Point 2 — Solve a whole problem for users

Ask:

• How many distinct prototypes did you test, and which one did you kill?
• Where does the prototype stop, and what is the user still holding when it stops?
• Which part of the whole problem did you deliberately not prototype, and why?
• Has a stakeholder signed off "the screens"? What would it take to throw them away?

Evidence to request: two or more prototypes or clearly different approaches, a record of the one that was discarded.

Answers that indicate Met: the team can demo two approaches and say which learning killed one of them.

Answers that indicate Not Met: one design, described as ready for Beta. Red line A2.

Point 3 — Provide a joined-up experience across all channels

Ask:

• How does someone who cannot use the prototype finish the same task?
• What did you try as an assisted-digital journey, even as a script or a paper mock?
• Where does the digital prototype hand the user to a person, and what does that person see?
• Which channel did you leave unexamined?

Evidence to request: an assisted-digital sketch or script, a channel handoff in at least one prototype.

Answers that indicate Met: assisted digital was tried with a user or a front-line member of staff, and the team can say what broke.

Answers that indicate Not Met: "we'll add the phone journey in Beta" with no exploration of what that journey is.

Point 4 — Make the service simple to use

Ask:

• Which interaction was risky enough that you tested a GOV.UK pattern and a custom pattern?
• What did users do differently with each?
• Which words did users misunderstand, and what did you change?
• What did you refuse to design until the research was clearer?

Evidence to request: a pattern comparison, notes on language that failed.

Answers that indicate Met: the GOV.UK pattern won, or the custom pattern won for a reason the team can show from sessions.

Answers that indicate Not Met: a bespoke interface with no comparison, or a design system adopted as branding rather than tested.

Lock-in probe

Ask who believes the current screens are the Beta service. If the answer is the sponsor, the delivery manager's plan, or the engineering backlog, A2 has fired even if earlier discarded sketches exist in a folder.