Home Office
-
Interaction Design
-
Service Design
About the project
I worked with Kin+Carta to design the replacement service for the Police National Computer (PNC), which is used by police forces across the UK to record and share information about crimes and criminals.
The project focused on the design of the LEDS (Law Enforcement Data Service) Property service, which is used by police officers to record information about property that has been stolen or recovered.
What we did
We spoke to police officers and staff from police forces across the UK to understand how they use the PNC and the local Record Management Systems (RMS) that are used to record crimes and criminals. We also spoke to staff from the Home Office and other government departments to understand the wider context of the project.
One of the biggest challenges of the project was to design a service that would cater for the breadth of processes and workflows used by the 50+ police forces across the UK. As a result, we spent a lot of time speaking to users and mapping existing processes to understand the different workflows and to identify opportunities for improvement.
We used the findings from our research, and research done by other teams, to create a representative service blueprint of the as-is user journey. This was used by the team to identify opportunities for improvement and to prioritise the delivery of features in the new service.
Designing the service
Using the GOV.UK prototype kit, I created a prototype of the LEDS Property service, branded using the Home Office design system. This was tested with users to validate the design and to gather feedback for further iterations.
One of the challenges of the project was to design a service that would work well for the devolved police forces across the UK. We worked closely with the Home Office to ensure that the service would meet the needs of all forces, and to ensure that the service would be compliant with the different laws and regulations in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
We held regular show and tells with stakeholders to share our progress and to gather feedback. Regular workshops also helped to keep stakeholders engaged and to ensure that the project was aligned with the wider programme.