Someone completing an assessment may need to ask a colleague for information or look up a supporting document. The software should accommodate that pause as part of the normal flow. For your consultancy, that is part of delivering a useful product: your clients can concentrate on the questions that need their expertise.
Browserbite builds tailor-made software around your consultancy’s methodology. Our responsibility includes designing the journey from the first answer to the handoff to your team. You do not need to bring a technical specification for saving and recovering answers.
A pause followed by a straightforward return
Consider an invented example. A client is completing an assessment ahead of a consulting session. They have answered several questions, but need someone to confirm the date of the last internal exercise. They return the following morning.
This is how that return should feel: the answers are where the client left them. They can see which question is still open, add the date and continue. They should not have to rewrite their responses or work out which pages had to be complete for their work to be retained.
Making a correction should be straightforward too. If required information is missing before submission, the application points to it and keeps the other answers in place. The GOV.UK Design System recommends this principle for input errors: retain the information already entered and explain what needs correcting. [1]
For the client, the useful result is simple: complete the answer and carry on.
We handle the technical details
That straightforward experience takes considered implementation. Saving, signing in again and handling an interrupted connection are responsibilities we take on as your development partner.
This also means communicating problems clearly and accurately. If an answer could not yet be saved, the interface must not pretend the operation succeeded. It should provide a clear way to continue. Accounting for those situations when designing and checking the software is our responsibility.
Your contribution is to explain how your consulting service works. We use that understanding to propose the product and discuss its implications with you. We handle the technical design.
When your team steps in is part of your service
One question needs a conversation together: when should your team see the answers and start working with them?
In one consultancy, the consultant may help with open questions while the client is still drafting. In another, professional review begins only when the client deliberately submits their answers for review. Both are possible service models. The software should reflect how your consultancy works.
In our invented example, review starts after submission. The client should first be able to look over the answers and make changes. This follows the GOV.UK check-answers pattern, which provides for reviewing and correcting information before sending it. [2] The application then confirms the handoff and explains what happens next.
The client can understand when they are still working on their answers and when your team takes over. Submission itself does not replace professional judgement.
Your methodology as a usable product
A digital assessment includes both the questionnaire and the journey through the application. Your methodology supplies the substantive questions. Our job is to turn it into software under your brand that guides clients through that journey, including a pause or a later addition.
That is why the first conversation starts with your consulting service: what should clients be able to prepare themselves, and where does your professional work begin? Together, we develop the product idea from there. We take responsibility for designing, implementing and checking the workflow.
Sources
[1] GOV.UK Design System — Recover from validation errors.
[2] GOV.UK Design System — Check answers.