Lines of questioning — Live design

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

Ask:

• What changed in the digital service in the last six months, and when did the phone script and the GOV.UK guidance change to match?
• Where do users still start again, and is that on the backlog?
• What does assisted digital do differently from the day you launched?

Evidence to request: a recent content change, the current phone script, a comparison against the digital journey.

Answers that indicate Met: channels were updated together, and the team can show the diff.

Answers that indicate Not Met: guidance is the launch version. Staff improvise.

Point 4 — Make the service simple to use

Ask:

• Which step has the worst completion drop-off, and where is it on the design backlog?
• What did you ship to address a drop-off, and what happened to the number?
• Which content have you rewritten because users misunderstood it, and how do you know?
• What internal request did you refuse because it would make the service harder?

Evidence to request: drop-off report, design backlog, a shipped content or interaction change.

Answers that indicate Met: the worst step has an owner and a recent experiment or fix.

Answers that indicate Not Met: the drop-off is known and absent from the backlog. Red line L6.

Point 5 — Make sure everyone can use it

Ask:

• Which accessibility issues are open, and which were opened by live users rather than the original audit?
• When the UI changed, who retested with a screen reader or magnifier?
• Is assisted digital still staffed at the hours users need, and what are they struggling with?
• When was the accessibility statement last updated, and against which build?

Evidence to request: open accessibility defects, statement date, assisted-digital volumes and themes.

Answers that indicate Met: live issues are owned, and a material UI change was retested.

Answers that indicate Not Met: the statement describes a service you can no longer find, or a known assisted-digital failure has no backlog item. Red line L6.

Backlog probe

Ask for the top five design and content items. If none of them is a user drop-off, a channel contradiction, or an accessibility defect, point 4 is weakly evidenced. If the team also admits they know about a bad step, L6 has fired.