Weeknote 1: Getting started in user-centred design
What I’m doing here
I’ve been inspired recently by Vicky Teinaki’s weeknotes (if you haven’t come across them then I’d highly recommend checking them out).
I’m about to embark on a four-year journey, pivoting my career to focus on user centred design, specifically user experience (UX) and interaction design. So, I thought it would be a great thing to share my journey into the profession, from the viewpoint of a career changer.
So how am I going about this? Well I’ve been incredibly fortunate to secure a level 6 integrated degree apprenticeship in Digital User Experience from the folks at QA and Northumbria University. I feel incredibly grateful and fortunate that Ofqual are investing in my future and supporting me on this journey. Using their apprenticeship levy pot to fund my four-year study programme.
It’s really a win-win situation for everyone and an under-utilised way to nurture talent. Here’s some good arguments for exploring this route (and some myth busting):
- The apprenticeship levy is there to be used, and it makes sense to use it in a field where recruitment can be notoriously difficult.
- I get to study and work at the same time, putting some formal training and academic research behind my newfound passion whilst gaining important industry experience and working with real users.
- I continue my employment with Ofqual at the same grade and salary as I am at now. I don’t have to start over again (which would have been impossible with a mortgage and family to support).
- There’s no glass ceiling just because I’m an apprentice. As my line manager said, if the apprenticeship is working as it should, I should progress even whilst I’m studying.
- Yes there’s time needed for off-the-job training. But in building my portfolio and completing my assignments the work should be directly related to my role, and Ofqual’s priorities. So even when I’m studying, Ofqual are still getting value added.
How did it start?
I’ve previously worn many different hats including business analysis, digital service support, stakeholder engagement, and communications. I won’t go too far back into the detail for the sake of brevity. But I have always been drawn to solving problems creatively, so when the opportunity came up (due to a gap in the team) to do some content design here at Ofqual I jumped at the chance.
Whilst working on the service I did the excellent Introduction to Content Design course created by Government Campus UK, and also the fantastic Foundation in Content Design course by Content Design London.
Things spiralled and I soon found a lot of enjoyment using the GOV.UK prototyping kit and the excellent GOV.UK design system, both for prototyping journeys in our service but also just self-learning HTML and the other technologies used in the kit. Side note, the GOV.UK prototype kit tutorials are an excellent place to start (juggling-balls, anyone?).
In my free time I was also self-learning Figma, user journey mapping techniques, heuristics, and lots of other things. I honestly felt like I’d found my calling.
What’s the process been like so far?
I am super fortunate to have an amazing bunch of teammates at Ofqual and two really supportive line managers, who were eager to get me more formal training in interaction design. That’s when I discovered the apprenticeship standard and floated the idea to my manager.
Long story short, we did some research, spoke to some of the providers, and had various conversations with HR here at Ofqual and a plan started to take shape. With the help of our excellent Early Careers Manager, within no time we had narrowed the choice down to two providers.
Due to my personal circumstances QA with Northumbria University suited me best, so we met with them again to get the ball rolling.
I then had to find out my GCSE Maths and English certificates and my previous History degree certificate from all those years ago (don’t worry too much about this and don’t let it stop you, there are other ways if you’ve lost your certificates).
The next step was to send off a few forms and my certificates, then complete some BKSB assessments (to help the provider get a baseline of Maths and English competency and I believe for funding rules too). They were straight forward enough and easy to complete online.
In the background our Early Careers Manager was handling everything that needed to be done from a HR point of view to get everything set up and all the admin done with QA.
Once all that was done, and I received my offer and my start date. Next step is the enrolment process, which starts next week.
This may sound like a lot of time and effort, but it’s been smooth (no doubt due to all the fantastic support from colleagues here at Ofqual) and we only started to consider this route at the end of July 2023! So things have moved quickly.
What next?
I’m going to be sharing my journey throughout my apprenticeship in weeknotes. Starting next week, after my enrolment meeting with QA.
In the meantime, I’d love to chat with any other apprentices doing a similar thing or with anyone who may be interested in pursuing the same route as me, I’m more than happy to help you navigate the process.
In the immediate term, we’re partway through a round of user research on a journey that I’ve designed in for our Subject Matter Specialists service. Lots of good early information so far. I’ll spending this week with our excellent user researcher, analysing the findings, and making a plan to move forward.
We’ve also just sent off some stickers to be printed, to celebrate a big milestone on our Subject Matter Specialists service. The workshop was good fun — I’ll share a photo when they arrive.
We’re doing lots of interesting UCD projects here at Ofqual so get in touch or stay tuned for more.
If you’d like to connect and follow my progress, then the best place to find me is LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-tyrrell-digital/
