24 July - 6 August
The theme for this final alpha sprint was to make sure we had everything in place to put one person through the full end-to-end service and continue to remove obstacles for the beta phase.
User research
Early in the sprint our visual designer joined the team and we began to explore some options for packaging and instruction mock ups.
Experiments with the test kit box
We also began to play around with gifs and video content to support the user through the tricky process of taking the blood test at home.
Opening the blood sample container
You can see our first pass at a video How to take blood guide below.
We identified a few assumptions based on previous research and went out to test with people in the clinic waiting rooms:
- People want a placemat/map to layout kit (view PDF)
- People want the kit packaged per-test ie urine, blood, tip
- The word 'tip' works instead of swab for rectal, vaginal, oral.
Individually packaged tip/swap test kit for testing with clinic visitors
We were given a great opportunity to run a hack day hosted by Made in Lambeth, details of which can be seen in this blog post.
The alpha service
Our main focus was to make sure someone could complete an end-to-end test and with that in mind we finalised the following:
- The online order form effectively collected all data needed
- Ensured that the test kit was in an appropriate state
- Confirmed that the lab could process the kits
- Procedures to match lab results with orders
- Arranged with the labs to handle positive test results
At the end of the sprint, one team member was able to complete the process and further "friendly" users are lined up to do so as we move into beta.
The first alpha end-to-end test is posted to the lab
Hosting and information governance
Having submitted our first draft information governance paper to the NHS Trust IG lead we received valuable feedback and were able to make some minor revisions before submitting the paper to the IG committee due to meet in late August.
One recommendation from the IG Lead was that we find an alternative SMS service provider to Twilio that hosts data in Europe rather than USA.
Mapping the exchange of data - sensitivity and method - through the different phases of service development
We also created a wiki in preparation for the documentation of our IG Toolkit assessment which will proceed during beta.
Progress was worryingly slow with our chosen N3 hosting provider so we reopened a dialogue with some alternative suppliers and learnt more about the N3 process. We have finally deployed our application to an N3 enabled server - although the N3 connection is not yet in place. This will be pushed along during the beta phase.
Branding
MultiAdaptor carried out a deep dive into the brand research and shared lots of source material with the rest of the SH24 team before focussing on a first pass at a set of alpha brand guidelines.
Some early considerations for a logo font
Beta planning
The beta team was introduced to the project and we carried out a couple of planning sessions to make sure we had a reasonable backlog in place ready to start the beta phase. An additional developer, a scrum master and a tested will join the alpha team.
The SH24 team grows as we prepare to move from alpha to beta phase
The backlog was entered into Pivotal Tracker to give us more control over story management as we move into a more rigorous Scrum process.