Relieved that our family all got negative tests back this morning, so it seems we just have some other sickness bug instead 🤢 
Lots of thoughts on the testing process (which was very efficient overall/results within 24hrs). Will share when I’m feeling better
So some thoughts of getting a family tested for Covid now that I’m feeling a bit better. Overall really impressive that drive through testing system works. Where we live there were plenty of available slots, and staff at the testing site were reassuring and results were quick
Confusing things are more in the detail. It’s impossible not to see these when you’ve been around service design work for long enough. There are lots of small points across the end to end service where information could be clearer or is duplicated (not always in a helpful way)...
It’s interesting how jarring moving between gov.uk content, and the NHS website can me. Book a test was a https://t.co/lJNak37RiA service which didn’t make a lot of sense at the time...
Most confusing aspect of the whole thing was concept of booking a test for someone else. This is a pattern I’ve not seen many teams get right on gov.uk transactions. It was unclear at many points if I was giving my own details, or details for my 7yo daughter...
Example of this: When I did add 7yo daughters details, she doesn’t have an email address. But not adding an email meant we weren’t sent a QR code to scan at the testing site which then had to be sorted out and caused problems when we arrived (I should have just used my own email)
Another example: cards/and labels handed out at the site made it sound as if tests had to be registered when we got home. But having tried this, it turned out this was actually the registration I’d done to book the test. Just the unclear information at that point of the process
Why share this? This is a perfect example of the importance of getting a public service live quickly, and credit to the teams responsible. Done (live) was better than perfect. But these are all service design problems that can be solved with (mostly) small changes #keepgoing
...can *be*
Just to say finally. Big thanks to everyone working on these services and in NHS testing 👏 👏The most important thing was getting a scared and worried family some test results as fast as possible
