Evidence 01. Assisted digital research 2
About the research:
- 3 interviews successfully completed at participants' homes (x2) or place of work (x1)
Key findings:
- Concern that online payments are not secure
- Concern about sending payment card details in the post
- Users lower on digital inclusion scale prefer telephone or written correspondence
- Frustrated by limitations of present automated telephone service
About:
- Female, 69
- England
- Retired
IT / Internet use:
Cautious computer user
- Did use a computer when working, but found computers difficult to use, often asking the IT Helpdesk for assistance.
- "If I got lost all I did was pick up a phone and there was a guy who sort it out in 5 minutes."
- "I'm not confident using it, I'd just rather stay away from the internet. And if things take a little longer then so be it."
- Now retired, no longer uses the internet, with very occasional email use. "I never really got into the internet"
Concerns over use of email
- Risk of misdirection. Knows of an instance where the mistaken use of 'send to all' has resulted in unfortunate and embarrassing consequences "Send to all is a killer!"
- Security concerns. Believes her email was previously hacked. "I don't like the idea that someone can get into my personal mail"
- Actively discourages emails to be sent to her "I've stopped giving email address on any form"
- Values printed correspondance over digital comms. Considers a written record to be more reliable and tangible, keeps correspondence in file binders. "Well you have a record then don't you"
Engagement with Services
- Prefers human contact and posted letters: "I don't engage with services online. I use telephone & letters. I often make a telephone call as it saves me writing a letter, refer to the telephone call and then confirm it in writing."
- Values postal communication over immediacy. "It doesn't work when you want an immediate answer, but most things I manage to do before they get urgent urgent then that works very well."
Legalisation Office
- Situation: Selling apartment abroad
- Required apostille in order to organise a proxy to represent her in final deed of sale
How she found out about Legalisation Service
- Her Notary advised that she should before sending proxy obtain the apostille in GB, directing her to her solicitor – otherwise suggested contacting the legalisation office (he included a telephone number).
User Needs
Needs a telephone based contact to find out information about the service, including ways to pay
- "I pressed the option 'address' and got the po box number. But I wanted to speak to someone about the payment options but there was no way to speak to them"
Needs to know an offline method of payment so that she has an acceptable way to pay
- "I went through the answering service and chose the option about how you pay. It said that you can pay online. It did not tell you, if you did not want to pay online, how you could pay."
Needs a payment method that she trusts is secure to feel comfortable giving out payment details
- "I couldn't get hold of a real person to ask....I'm quite happy to give my bank number to a government official over the phone. But I don't want to put it on the internet so that somebody can hack into it. So I sent a cheque with a letter, saying if you don't accept cheques would you please call and tell me how I can pay. [The cheque] was the only option I had. I wasn't going to give them credit card details in writing - I could always cancel the cheque”
Needs to know when to expect her document returned so she can plan her continuing legal process
- "I knew it was going to come back by courier..But what I didn't know was how long it would take to process."
Needs to receive printed messages via post so that she accesses them promptly
- "The guy I sold the apartment to worked out very quickly that he could send an email, we would retrieve it eventually...but he would also send a print out in the mail. Its was quicker for me to get that than to persuade my husband to print [the email]"
About:
- Male, 50
- England
- Solicitor / Notary
IT / Internet use:
- Cautious internet user, a few online purchases.
- Security concerns - does not trust internet banking
- Basic phone / no smartphone.
- Family assist with technology sometimes
Mixed attitude toward technology:
Negative
- Invasive "It invades a family meal – I'm wary of it taking over." "It detracts from conversation and from time to reflect about things, take a step back"
- Addictiveness "I'm not scared of it, I'm just not hooked on it."
- Potential to take over "you have to control these things otherwise they take over. .. you can find yourself enslaved to them if you are not careful, rather than the technology being your servant."
Positive
- Paperless benefits "I am the only one in a meeting without a tablet, I have to print it out.."
Engagement with services
-
Prefers telephone contact to online for solving service problems but has low expectations of success
"I haven't gone online [to communicate with telephone/broadband service provider] I prefer the phone. The problem is you can't get through to someone who is prepared to take your case and make it a personal crusade to solve that problem." -
Frustrated by automated telephone systems that are not user friendly
"You can ring up its recorded messages and of course what I want isn't covered by any of the messages. So I don't know what to do with it. Sometimes they take you back to the beginning. Sometimes it says you've dialled the wrong number and the phone system puts the phone down on you!" -
Frustrated by telephone-based discussions with service providers about account status. Details can be missed, with opportunities for ambiguity and miscommunication.
-
Sees potential for online over telephone contact, as a way to more easily review service account details.
“if we could go on the screen on the computer and type in something and see the status of an account, and we it says here we are on a 12 month contract, is that correct or not? Yes that would be a good idea.”
Legalisation service
-
In the pre-digital service, valued the simple process and the safe payment method
"In the old days, I used to write a letter to the FCO, saying here's the document that needs to be legalised and here's the cheque. I'd send them an envelope, they'd send it back. Nice and easy." -
Finds the existing service time consuming, placing too much cognitive load onto him
"Now I have to fill in one of these (forms). You download it from the Legalisation website. And on another form which is how I pay for it, using my credit card which gives me this 16 digit number. 16 digits! Does it have to be 16? thats an awful lot of numbers..I have to get that right and then I send that off. I save the form to remember the number." -
Security concerns over payment method using the existing service
"I have to give them my personal credit card details including my number on the back, on a form, which is always a worry. If someone scans that form they will get all my details to take a lot of money out of my account. I can see the attraction of an online service - payment details can't get lost in post” -
Payment preferences
"what I would rather they do [the legalisation service] - is say this is your account and I'd get the firm to write a cheque and we'd send it off and that cuts me out of the money loop completely." -
Concern about paying over the internet
"An awful lot of money gets lost because of using online facilities, and crooks using them to feather their own nests" -
Security concerns around passwords
"I went to a talk where someone told me the most common password is 'password'. That's just stupid, the computer needs to say 'don't be so stupid, change your password you donk'. It needs to say 'this is no good'! Lets have a bit of interaction from the computer saying I am not excepting that password.. its hopeless.."
User Needs
- Needs a service that is quick and easy to interact with
- Needs a system that does the hard work so that he is free of onerous time-consuming tasks
- Needs a secure service that he trusts enough to use online payments
- Needs an service that manages payments simply and easily
- Needs a way to resolve service issues promptly
- Male, 72
- England
- Notary
IT / Internet use
-
Has physical and cognitive impairments
-
Occasional internet use of very familiar websites e.g. a notaries forum
-
Some email usage
-
Works from home
-
Wife works full time, performs the more challenging non work-related internet activities such as booking holidays
-
Finds the internet challenging "I find it quite difficult...I'm not very good if I think about it.
Engagement with services
- prefers telephone and written correspondence
"Depends what I am trying to do. If complaining about my gas bill I would use the phone. But we've booked a holiday on the email (with his wife)."
Legalisation Service
-
Most notary work is for people buying property abroad
"I am dealing with people who want to apostille something, its usually relating to france or spain and portugal. Those sort of countries. Although occasionally an aspotille for south africa." -
Has a dispensation letter from the Legalisation service that allows him to first write in and be contacted via telephone to take payment details
"I've got [illness] so I got that back (a letter from the Head of the Legalisation Service). And so thats what I use now. I write in (to the service) and say here's a letter from (the head of the service), and I will be receptive to a telephone call from you and I will give my details out over the phone. Which is what I've done quite a lot in the last few months." -
Has an arrangement that the service sends apostilled documents direct to his clients
"Then they process the apostille. And I've got to the stage where I assume that all is OK and so I ask them (the legalisation office) to send whatever the document is direct either to the client in england or spain or where ever. -
Occasionally calls up to check the progress and ETA of an apostilled document
"if I have an obstreperous client who is saying where is my document and where is my apostille? And I had to ring (the legalisation service) and see what answer I can get, …I am told there are hundreds of processors, and it would take a great deal of time to track down my application. But I have persevered once or twice and managed to get an answer."
User Needs
- Needs a telephone contact as he finds using the internet difficult and has no-one available to assist
- Needs as clear an estimate of turnaround as possible to manage client expectations
- Needs a way to resolve service queries promptly