Manage cases in a simple, accessible and efficient way

Involvement

  • UX
  • UR
  • Interaction Design
  • Design System
  • Prototyping
  • Development
  • Accessibility
Client
HM Courts & Tribunals Service
Industry
Government
Year
2018

Overview

The Judicial Case Manager is part of a £1 billion programme involving over 50 projects aimed at changing and improving the Courts and Tribunals Service by introducing new technology and modern ways of working.

Our role was to create a user interface that would enable and support judges and other members of the judiciary, allowing them to manage their cases more efficiently within the reformed services.

Balsamiq mockups to tease out requirements with Judges

Our process

We started the design process with low-fidelity prototypes, consisting of sticky notes and hand-drawn sketches to facilitate brainstorming.

Using Balsamiq, we quickly created rough concepts to test various scenarios with judges. Later, we developed high-fidelity mockups using Sketch to establish the overall look and feel of the interface and to design a collection of reusable components for the service.

Judicial Case Manager research and planning

A collection of sketches, sticky notes, planning and research around a typical user journey for both appellant and judge.

  1. Fig. 1 - Sketches and research notes
  2. Fig. 2 - Sticky notes capturing findings
  3. Fig. 3 - Shows a complete user journey for a judge
  4. Fig. 4 - Shows what a judge needs to do to progress cases
Digital case file design concepts
Questions to the appellant and answers from a judge user flow design concepts
Case details landing page design for a judge viewing a case
Dashboard design to show a list of cases a judge could be working on

Prototyping in code

Later, we transitioned the Sketch designs into prototype code. Although it took some time to ramp up, once we did, it became very fast to prototype new features.

Presenting an interactive, realistic user experience allowed us to identify usability failures within the service and ensured that user needs remained at the centre of every design decision.

Research and analysis

Research visits around England encompassed 12 locations, involving 25 participants and over 104 hours of research. We also collaborated with individual service lines to leverage their research, saving us significant time and avoiding duplication of effort.

From our research, we defined:

  • A set of user needs for each service line
  • A core set of user needs for the Judicial case manager
  • A set of personas describing our main user types
  • An understanding of the current user journeys for each service line
User testing with a Judge in Guildford Magistrates’ Court and Family Court

Collaborative delivery

We collaborated with product owners, business analysts, user researchers, content designers, developers, and delivery managers, adopting Agile principles. Every individual brought their own unique set of skills and expertise to transform the Courts and Tribunals system.

Divorce user journey page designs
Financial Remedy user journey page designs
Continuous Online Resolution (COR) user journey page designs

Photography

A significant aspect of designing a service for the Judiciary involved visiting various courtrooms to observe how cases are handled by Judges. We had the opportunity to capture images of Lady Justice and the Central Criminal Court building, providing an excellent opportunity to use our trusty camera.

Lady Justice Statue at the Old Bailey in London. Photo by Trevor Saint
Central Criminal Courts at the Old Bailey in London. Photo by Trevor Saint

The results

We delivered a highly complex end-to-end digital service for judges to manage their cases. This service effectively incorporated and met the needs of the following service lines:

  • Divorce
  • Financial Remedy
  • Social Security and Child Support (SSCS)
  • Civil Money Claims (CMC)
  • Probate
  • Public Law

Trevor worked with me as an Interaction Designer, and I can vouch for his attention to the detail and quality of the UX designs. He was one of the first few team members to join and was quickly able to embed within the agile scrum team, working closely with User Researcher and BA

Kalyana Kakaraparthi
Delivery Manager at HM Courts & Tribunals Service