Ofsted
Replacing a legacy process
with a modern digital tool
New Report Writing System
for Inspectors
Summery
Ofsted’s “Write an Inspection Report” project, is a flagship initiative to replace the legacy MS Word process with a modern digital tool. Allowing inspectors to write, quality assure, and publish inspection reports.
Role
Lead Content Designer/User researcher
Client
Ofsted
Goals and objectives
Ofsted required a modern digital tool to help Lead Inspectors write their Ofsted inspection report, the solution also needs to facilitate collaborative working with other users such as Quality Assurance while satisfying Policy and Other Stakeholders. The solution replaces reliance on the legacy MS Word process.
Business requirement
A modern digital tool to replace the reliance on an external legacy product.
User need
Create a tool that helps me easily and quickly write my inspection report from initial draft to publication
“Emma really excels at coming up with new innovative solutions to tricky problems. We were grateful that Emma could even fill both strategy and UR roles at short notice, lending much needed planning and structure to a complex project. And she has a great research style, able to pick up on cues and explore deeper to gather rich insights. ”
Responsibilities and Impact
Defined UX vision, mapped complex end-to-end workflows across systems, people, and processes, and established solid design and research foundations
Shaped strategic direction by identifying risks early (technology not compatible with GDS standards), embedding accessibility testing from the outset, ensuring developers had the tools to test effectively as they built features
Established strong design and research practices: built a Figma component library, set standards and ubiquitous language, and led three rounds of user research to distil insights into actionable recommendations for design and policy
Enabled cross-team collaboration: facilitated workshops, journey mapping, and live demos; built alignment across designers, developers and external accessibility testers in a remote-first environment
Amplified team impact: worked with the Research Lead to turn findings into key insights, documented processes through videos for case studies and learning materials, and delegated effectively to interaction designers, researchers, and third-party accessibility specialists
