Review of the People Bank application form - People Bank involvement

Overview

The Consultation and Insight team are working on updates on People Bank resources, including the application form for new members. As part of these changes the application form will serve a dual purpose of giving existing members the option to update us on any changes to their details, needs and interests. The form will sit on the upcoming People Bank webpage. We asked some People Bank members to review and user test the updates to the form.

Our user testers said:

1. Some of the language felt unclear or exclusive when explaining member involvement or desired experience. Examples include: ‘strategy & approaches’, ‘your skills’ & ‘experience of Adult Social Care’.
2. There needed to be more examples within the prompt for the question asking about communication and access needs.
3. The question regarding volunteering experience felt confusing.
4. Using the words ‘monitor’ and ‘measure’ in the commitments section feels like an assessment and intimidating.
5. The wording ‘update your details’ felt misleading based on what details the members can update.
6. General comments on structure or wording of sentences.

How we responded:

1. Certain terms were removed from the form. ‘Skills’ was replaced with ‘experience’ and ‘Adult Social Care’ changed to ‘social care’, in order to feel more inclusive.
2. Added more examples including venue access and transport requirements.
3. Amended this question to ask more broadly ‘What is your experience of volunteering?’.
4. Words ‘measure’ and ‘monitor’ have been removed and text amended to be clear that individual members will not be assessed in any way.
5. The title of this section has been amended to ‘What member details would you like to update?’. This will then route the member to the relevant section based on their answer.
6. Actioned list of suggestions on text structure throughout the form.

“Thank you for your support and insight. It will help improve all new and existing People Bank members’ experience of communicating with us” – The Consultation and Insight team.