Evidence 01. Assisted digital research 2

Assisted digital face to face research interviews, February / March

User 1 - face to face interview

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 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]"

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User 2 - face to face interview

About:

• Male, 50
• England
• Solicitor / Notary

IT / Internet use:

• Books holidays online
• Basic phone / no smartphone.

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

Engagement with services

• Prefers telephone contact to online, but increasingly frustrated by poor telephone service
  "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."

"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 that a telephone based relationship with a service provider means details can be missed, with opportunities for ambiguity and miscommunication of details.

• 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 could say 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."