Top task / short cut links

[bencullimore]

What

On hub (routing) pages we found users needed a short cut to their top tasks; 'doing a thing (service)' or getting specific information about a topic area, rather than leaving them to navigate through a topic hierarchy - give them what they want, fast.

Here's an example of a 'top task' link on the Coronavirus (COVID-19) hub page for 'Get a test to check if you have coronavirus' https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/

Why

The majority of users enter the NHS website through a google search. Depending on how specific their google search term is, results in how deep they go into our structure.

Searching google for "Diabetes" would give them the 'level 1' hub page on the NHS website https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/diabetes/ which routes them to information we have on type 1 and type 2 diabetes (level 2 hub pages).

If, for example; through analytics, we know the majority of users want to know about "food you can eat when diagnosed with type 2 diabetes" but their search team is "diabetes" - they would land on the diabetes level 1 page, then have to navigate through Diabetes > Type 2 diabetes > Food and keeping active.

So it makes sense to give the majority of visitors to the main diabetes hub a short cut to the specific information about the food you can eat to support their task.

In the context of a hub page; which is essentially a page of links that filter/route users through varying sized topic areas - The order of links is important, along with users being able to visually distinguish between types of links.

Example of proposed 'top task' link

Definition:
To be used for shortcuts to content within the topic area that is popular with users or meets a business need (to drive traffic to a specific piece of content within the topic area). Maximum 3 top tasks, but less the better.

Link text: Mirroring the heading of the linked page (h1)

Design Small white promo box https://nhsuk.github.io/nhsuk-frontend/components/promo/promo-small.html
(https://github.com/nhsuk/nhsuk-frontend/tree/master/packages/components/promo)

Previous iterations - user research findings

We started out re-using link styling from the NHS.uk homepage (blue box) and tested in the context of pregnancy content

Pregnancy prototype example (Lab 3)

Hypothesis 5.a (Top tasks)
If we style different type of links on a hub page - visually different
Then users will know that they're different and will take them to different things
Because they're visually different and ordered in a hierarchy

This hypothesis failed; top task styling was too attractive and caused honey pot issues (users clicking the boxes before reading the page and getting lost). The rest of the styling was mainly working.

Noted behaviours from lab 3:

• Seems focussed on the blue boxes above hub sections in Pregnancy hub. - P4
• Can't see beyond pregnancy top tasks - P4
• Early days selected immediately - understood the concept of other options being about how far along - P3

Cancer hub page prototype (lab 5)

We changed the style of top task boxes, using the white 'small promo' boxes from NHS.UK frontend library.

We found this iteration not being too prominent - and distracting users from reading the full hub page, but users who needed them to shortcut/ complete their task found them

P1: CC4. "Cancer...I'd go onto 'Symptoms of cervical cancer' (top task) and...where I am now, yeah."
P1: Healthy eating > cervical cancer > symptoms TOP TASK

We continued using the white small promo box iteration for top tasks on prototypes when testing coronavirus content https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/ and NHS services https://nhsuk-prototype-ia.azurewebsites.net/lab-7/nhs-services

Notes from lab 7 (NHS services hub testing)
The top tasks promoted at the top of the page worked well for people finding the information they need faster.

• P4 T6: NHS services > GP appointment & bookings
• P1 T2: NHS services > Order a repeat prescription > Start now

The coronavirus hub (https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/) has since gone live on the NHS website - with a link to 'get a coronavirus test'

Between 8 June - 7 July 2020, the top task link for 'get a coronavirus test' is getting around 14.9% of visits from the corona hub page, the second most visited page from the coronavirus hub (after check if you or your child has symptoms).

We can take from this that the top task link isn't interfering/ too prominent with the rest of the page, but it's allowing users to short cut to getting a test - making it quicker for them to complete their task, and possibly reducing the number of users leaving the site, entering a specific search term (get a test).

[GrilloPress]

Bit of an aside. How are you measuring the success of the user’s journey alongside how used a top task is?

Bounce rate + duration on other pages?

[GrilloPress]

@samanthasaw relates to what we do on service hub pages in the NHS App

[bencullimore]

Bit of an aside. How are you measuring the success of the user’s journey alongside how used a top task is?

Bounce rate + duration on other pages?

This is an interesting one; part of the new IA strategy is having/supporting multiple routes to something as no two users are alike in their journeys - meaning it's hard to quantify the success of top tasks by 'user clicks top task and spends XX amount of time on the linked page' as that isn't the one definitive journey.

Users might be happy clicking through multiple levels of hubs to find the information, some would get to the information by the internal search, some through the health a to z, some might want to read around the topic area first before getting to the top task page - all successful methods. We've seen this a lot in user testing.

What we do know is that in some sections/topic areas some users need a quick link/short cut to find some information/do a thing, and by not having this link could result in them leaving the site and going back to google.

There are also issues in linking success to how long a user spends on a page - what if its a start page to a transactional journey and they click a big green button, so spend 3 seconds scanning the heading (to know they're in the right place) then clicking the button and doing a thing. Or if its an information page and the thing they need is a sentence in the first paragraph. They spend 5 seconds on the destination page and don't scroll.

So clicks + bounce rate + duration don't equate to success and only tell us part of the story.

We worked with the analytics team and come up with measuring success based on visits. Visits are counted by a number of times a page was viewed in a session and duration of visits - so we can see how users move around our structures.

The subject matter experts for a topic area know what pages/services are important to users/national health outcomes. Top task links allow them to provide users (who need it) with short cuts. I would suggest that success measures be linked to a wider strategy for getting users around content areas/specific areas/services based on needs, not based solely on individual components.

In the coronavirus example where 'get a coronavirus test' is the top task it's been useful in increasing the number of visitors to the 'get a coronavirus test' page (top task link was added after going live, so we can see before and after metrics) but we're also seeing a good flow of visitors through other pages within the hub particularly the symptoms page which is important for both users and policy perspective (users knowing the symptoms before getting tested).

[samanthasaw]

Top task model in the NHS App

We use a different larger heading with no paragraph panel link for the top task (primary service), in this case Order a repeat prescription.
Secondary services use a panel link with a slightly smaller heading and a paragraph.

[RoseMunro]

Findings from Lab 1, Pregnancy and Baby Hub, MT2

Remote interviews, Oct 2020.

Tested with 8 participants, 5 on desktop/laptop, 1 on tablet, 2 on mobile.

We asked participants to complete 10 information-finding tasks, 2 of which could be completed by selecting a top task from the level 0 hub. Only 1 participant missed the related top task link – this was because they did not scroll all the way to the top of the level) hub after completing another task.

From a pre-test interview with a user on a mobile, the user skipped over the Top task. When asked to reflect on why this might have been , the respondent said that she had not noticed it because there was no arrow, as there was on the other sections.

Findings from First click test, Pregnancy and Baby Hub, MT2

Tested with 51 respondents.

We asked participants to click on the section that they expected they would find the information they needed when presented wih a specific scenario.

38/51 (75%) correctly clicked on the top task when asked to find out when their baby was due. This was less than we might expect, especially when we compare this to the success rate in other tasks we set, many of which achieved numbers like 48,49/51.

(Appreciate picture below is a bit hard to interpret. Anything in the Like or Dislike column counts as a selection.)

[beccagorton182]

For mental health:

We've seen top tasks be very successful in our labs.
Users have found it helpful to have the top tasks as the first things they see on the page. When asked to find content that related to the top tasks, users would click on the top tasks, or tell us they would.
Whilst exploring other areas of the site, users commented that top tasks they saw would be helpful in certain information seeking situations, especially in a pinch or a stressful situation.

We've found having more content, and a verb in the top tasks is useful to manage user expectations of what they will find when they click through, if it is unfamiliar to them.
i.e We included a link to IAPT and used 'Access NHS psychological therapies without speaking to a GP' and this was better than 'NHS psychological therapies service'

[BrieWhyatt]

Find symptoms content alpha (Information architecture team):

In a recent round of labs, we tested a potential new symptoms main topic hub, and included two top tasks: one for finding a pharmacy and one for going to NHS 111, as both were potential places users may need to go to find other information about symptoms they are experiencing.

Our main findings:

1. One user felt top tasks were there for more urgent symptoms i.e. if you didn't have time to read the information, you may choose to select one
2. One user said they "had not thought to go to a pharmacist" and in response, would consider it next time they were experiencing a symptom, another said about using 111 if they couldn't find the information they needed
3. Users noticed the top tasks and understood they were quick actions

Essentially, they used the top tasks to evaluate if they were in the right place. For example, if they felt they needed more urgent help they would use a top task, but if not, they felt safe to continue down the page to see what other information was available. Plus, it even educated the users as to where they may go back to if they were not successful in searching within the hub for information.