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A World Beating System

Boris Johnson has claimed the UK will have a “world-beating" system to test, track and trace for Coronavirus up and running by 1 June 2020.

From early media reports it doesn't look good for this strategy to succeed.

User trust as well as speed of build and distribution are hampering efforts.

There is lack of clarity and total confusion over what people expect from a world beating system.

There rightly seems to be public concern in all areas. 

Boris Johnson has also claimed "We’ve recruited 24,000 trackers and by the 1st of June we’ll have 25,000."

Well as long as they have access to a phone, internet connection and are prepared to watch TV shows on netflix, they're ok.

It is great to see how tax payers money is being used.

So What Does It Really Take To Make A World Beating System?

In the past I have had execs in brainstorm sessions telling me they want an "All encompassing world beating system" which is usually a dream or vision that is practically impossible to start small with.

The Coronavirus app is something that has been tried and used before in other countries, but it only really works if you have user uptake and adoption alongside a well thought out support strategy.

It entirely depends on the underlying support structure of the strategy as a whole for any system to be "world beating", whatever that means.

"World beating" probably translates to "The Best User Experience" and that can only be done with solid User Research with real users to cater for their needs.

So what does it take to make a world beating system?

Service Design And Service Blueprints

A service blueprint is a diagram that shows the relationships between different service components, people, props and processes, that are tied to touchpoints in a customer journey.

Service blueprints give an organisation an understanding of its service and the underlying resources and processes seen and unseen to the user that make it possible.

Focusing on this understanding provides strategic benefits for the business.

It allows visibility of the back stage processes needed to support the front stage activities.

Blueprints are treasure maps that help discover weaknesses. Poor user experiences are often due to an internal oversights, a weak link in the system.

While we can understand what might be wrong in a user interface, determining the root cause of an issue is much more difficult.

Blueprinting exposes the big picture and offers a map of dependencies, allowing a business to discover a weak leak or root causes.