Nav A-Z

[ZMcClatchey]

What

Nav A-Z is a navigation component, allowing the user to click search through the alphabet.

Why

• There is evidence that shows the Nav A-Z component is being used by NHS services (see below).
• What evidence do you have that it meets the needs of the users of those services?
• I have checked and this component does not exist in the NHS digital service manual.

Anything else

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/

[ZMcClatchey]

BBC A-Z Components

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/a-z

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/a-z/a

[ZMcClatchey]

Gov A-Z Component

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/style-guide/a-to-z-of-gov-uk-style

[chrimesdev]

NHS Digital corporate website example

https://digital.nhs.uk/services

[davidhunter08]

Guidance for the Nav A-Z already exists on the service manual as part of the A to Z pattern. It is always used with the list panel component so there might not be a need to document it as a single component on the service manual.

[alexparsons07]

The Design Working Group discussed this issue on 21/10/19. Feedback as follows:

• There is currently no evidence of the Nav A-Z being used on its own.

• Check with the IA team in NHS.UK regarding possible plans to change this pattern on the NHS website.

• Design working group suggested that the component is removed from the frontend library and we utilise the A to Z pattern in the service manual, not add a component

[AnnaShmith]

What

The NHS website has a health A to Z where a user can navigate through particular health-related terms alphabetically.

It is made up of an alphabetic navigation, a list of terms, and each letter section ended with a ‘back to top’ link.

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/

Why

The IA team started looking into this because we are soon adding synonyms to the health A to Z, therefore making it longer and potentially harder to navigate.

We are conducting research into the health A to Z to establish a baseline of user behaviours and needs to then test in our new A to Z prototype

The current Health A to Z just contains links to conditions and symptoms pages.

Through user testing - the IA team proved that a health A to Z is a good way for some users to navigate all content on the website, as a directory of everything (back pages of the Argos catalogue). This means that alongside conditions and symptoms the Health A to Z will include links to

•   Advice
  

•   First Aid / Self Treatment
  

•   NHS Services
  

•   Medicines
  

•   Vaccines
  

•   Syndromes
  

•   Procedures
  

•   Treatments
  

•   Therapies
  

We also found that users have different names for things and that synonyms support different ways of finding information. With the addition of these new topics plus synonyms a page of around 1,000 links could potentially grow to 4,000+

4,000+ links makes for a very large page and introduces problems around being able to navigate, especially on smaller screens and users with access needs.

We believe that baselining user behaviours and needs at this point will help us understand what we need to test in our new prototype.

User research

Initially recorded 100 user journeys using the health A to Z on the live NHS website.

Prior to this, the health A to Z has been tested in 8 usability labs, 1 pregnancy and baby lab and 2 mental health labs. It has been on the NHS website for a long time, and has been tried and tested with countless users as a valuable addition to the website. It supports users with more exploratory journeys, and acts as a ‘one stop shop’ for information on the website.

Main Findings

- The users terms don’t match the term we use in the health A to Z entry
- The user often resorts to search 
- Saw users scroll into A then scroll back up and use search
- Using the A to Z as the main form of navigation

Our next steps are to conduct unmoderated testing on the new health A to Z prototype and analyse user behaviours against ones we have baselined in our current research.