One-to-one user testing 27-28 January 2021 :: Lab Testing
Audience
One-to-one testing via Teams
- Two business owners (tourism and retail)
- One FBS partner
- One male, Two female
Focus
- What challenges have they faced when accessing Covid funding?
- Can they find relevant funding? Where would they look first?
- Where do they expect to see upcoming funds on the site?
- Do they want to see closed funds on the site?
- How would they expect to see funds categorised?
- What would they do if they couldn’t find any funding for their business?
- Would they want to see general guidance about applying for funding?
Summary of insights
Challenges
- The government announces funds with large numbers, but when it’s divided up it isn’t much for the individual businesses
- Criteria needs to be more transparent
- A newly self-employed business without premises was unable to get any funding, and taking on premises is too risky right nowd
- Funds get announced but then they can’t find any information about them
Can they find relevant funding? Where would they look first?
- Two used the accordions, one used the CTA button
- None noticed the text link to more funding
Do they want to see upcoming funds on the site? Where would they expect to find them
- All said they wanted to see upcoming funds
- Most would expect to see them in the Browse support section - they scrolled down to the upcoming funds section on the advice page but didn’t really notice it
Do they want to see closed funds on the site? Where would they expect to see them?
- All users said no:
- “If they’re closed, they’re of no use to me”
- “It’s not worth the resource to look into them if they’re not going to open again”
How would they expect to see funds categorised?
- All said it would be useful to distinguish between grants and loans
What would you do if you came to the site and couldn’t find any funding?
- One would contact their MP
- One would just try to earn money through their business
- One would go to the contact us page and phone – they wouldn’t use the form because it doesn’t tell you how long it will take for someone to respond
Would you want to see guidance about applying for funding?
- “It’s a bit text heavy”
- Would maybe look at the FAQs or top tips
- It’s helpful to see what is needed for funding, but they would get their accountant to help
What might help
- Bullet point the criteria – keep it simple
- Keep open communication between businesses and government
- A tool where you could input your business details and it tells you which funds you’re eligible for
- Including filters for size of business or location
- Adding the closing date (or making it clear that there is no closing date) to service descriptions
Summary
- Users don’t notice the text link to all funding under the accordions
- Add the closing date (or make it clear that there is no closing date) to service descriptions
- Make upcoming funds more prominent on the advice page so users don’t miss them
- Funding guide may be of limited use to businesses that are experienced in accessing grant funding or get accountants/intermediaries to do it for them