Published by:
Raman Dhaliwal
Raman Dhaliwal, Head of Product at the Pensions Dashboard Programme (PDP) tells us how the newly created Usability Working Group will support her unrelenting pursuit of the adoption, across industry, of a user-centred approach for designing and developing dashboards.
Today, I’m delighted to announce the formation of the Usability Working Group (UWG). It will be a forum for facilitating discussion and sharing insight and best practise on all things related to pensions dashboards user needs and usability. This follows closely on the footsteps of the Data Working Group (DWG), set up earlier this year to get a better understanding of the data challenges anticipated by pensions providers and schemes in delivering the goals of pensions dashboards, as set out in our April Progress Update Report.
To me, the formation of the UWG represents a critical step in ensuring that the needs of pensions dashboards users remain at the heart of everything we do and inform the creation of a user-centric service design.
Here at the PDP, we have the privilege of accessing a wide range of high calibre individuals and organisations from across industry and government that are keen and able to contribute to the achievement of this user-centric approach. I am pleased that the UWG will comprise of a balanced mix of organisations representing users who want to deliver high quality pensions information to individuals and who want users to receive a secure and effective service.
So, what is the UWG and what does it aim to achieve?
The key purpose of the UWG is to ensure user input into the development of pensions dashboards. The group will support the creation of helpful guidelines to dashboard providers to provide simple to use and engaging pensions dashboards that meet user needs. The group will meet regularly and we will share details of the discussions as the work progresses. View the full list of members and more information about the objectives of the UWG.
Why is UWG so important?
Understanding user needs and the problem we are trying to solve for dashboard users is critical. What’s just as important, is continual user testing to see if the service is delivering the user needs and the outcomes that we set out to achieve.
Whether dashboards are developed by Government or industry, the basis of a good user-centric designed service is fully understanding and considering user needs.
The UWG will bring together knowledge and experience from organisations that represent potential dashboard users and those that provide user-centric services in financial and pensions sectors. This insight and expertise will help to inform and enhance the user research that the PDP will undertake over the lifetime of the programme.
I’m really excited to be driving forward the work of the UWG and would like to thank all our members for getting involved with the work of the PDP and giving their time and expertise to this important workstream.
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