Money and Pensions Service

User testing of a financial guidance website for the general public_Reaseach Lab and Participants

3
Incomplete applications
3 SME, 0 large
4
Completed applications
4 SME, 0 large
Published Friday 24 January 2020
Deadline for asking questions Friday 31 January 2020 at 11:59pm GMT
Closing date for applications Friday 7 February 2020 at 11:59pm GMT

Overview

Summary of the work 3 sets of moderated sessions to test designs for the navigation, search and unified contact system for a new website which merges the 3 legacy organisations that make up the MaPS, each session will comprise 12 users over two consecutive days, 6 for mobile and 6 for desktop.
Location London
Research dates Feb - March 2020 Supplier must be prepared to start within 1 week of the contract award notice
Organisation the work is for Money and Pensions Service
Budget range Budget up to £36,000 including VAT

About the work

Early market engagement N/A

About the research

Description of your participants Four users from each of three profiles per round:

Struggling younger adults
 
Aged 24-35
Single parent or child(ren) not living at home
Unemployed/part-time/low-paid employment
< £25k/yr income
Social/private renting
< £100 savings
Struggle with bills
Often/sometimes worry about debt
2 or more took/considered payday loan

Squeezed families

Aged 25-49
Married/cohabiting, at least one child at home
Minimum one full time employed/household
£25k-55k/yr household income
Private renting/mortgage
£100-600 savings
Workplace/private pension
Often/sometimes worry about bills
2 or more took/considered payday loan
 
Cushioned empty nesters

Aged 55-64
No children at home
Any relationship status
Minimum one full-time employed/household
£35k-75k/yr household income
Mortgage/own outright
£10k+ savings
Reasonable DC pension they have not accessed
Considering retirement
Have not had PensionWise appointment or consulted financial advisor
Seldom/never worry about bills
At least basic online skills.
Willing to be recorded or filmed.
Cannot have participated in user research in last 6 months.
Cannot work in digital media, market research, design, psychology or related field
Nor employed by a financial advisory service
Living in UK 3+ years

No more than 3 of same ethnicity per 2 day session
Minimum 5 participants each on iOS and Android.
If remote, minimum 5 participants each on macOS and Windows.
Assisted digital and accessibility requirements
Research plan
Research location 1st round may be in a lab in London or remote
Subsequent rounds will be in a research lab in London.
Supplier must also provide lab, or for remote tests must provide the video conference/desktop viewing software
Access restrictions at location
Number of research rounds 3
Number of participants per round 12
How often research will happen Once every three weeks
Evening or weekend research

Additional information

Additional terms and conditions Shortlisted Supplier taken forwards to the detailed evaluation stage will be required to register onto the MAPS e-sourcing portal: https://maps.app.jaggaer.com/web/login.html

- The supplier must also provide a research lab and incorporate this in to the price
- For lab tests, supplier must provide a viewing area for at least 8 people needs to be available at the research lab with refreshments supplied.
- For remote tests, supplier must provide video conference/desktop sharing software
- Remote tests must be observable by at least 8 people
- Supplier should provide a written report summarising all testing

Skills and experience

Buyers will use the essential and nice-to-have skills and experience to help them evaluate suppliers’ technical competence.

Essential skills and experience
  • Financial services research experience
  • Be able to provide a report of all testing rounds a week after it has taken place
  • Access to full recordings for all users
  • User researcher to work with internal UX designer to prepare research
Nice-to-have skills and experience
  • Eye tracking
  • Provide highlights of key points in video format
  • Live streaming via weblink
  • Separate note taker

How suppliers will be evaluated

All suppliers will be asked to provide a written proposal.
How many suppliers to evaluate 5
Proposal criteria
  • Approach to recruiting specialist participants
  • Your ability to demonstrate how you will manage participant attendance
  • How bidders identify risks and dependencies and offered approaches to manage them
  • Knowledge of financial services/guidance industry
  • Approach to mobile testing
  • Estimated timeframes for the work
  • Breakdown of recruitment costs and incentives
Additional assessment methods
Evaluation weighting

Technical competence

20%

Availability

60%

Price

20%

Questions asked by suppliers

1. Are you looking for the supplier to create the test protocol? If yes, could this be adapted and re-used for each round of testing? The supplier will not be required to create the test script.
2. For the report – are you looking for a summary of key findings and recommendations or a more detailed document including mocked up recommendations? The report need only include key findings & recommendations.
3. To clarify, does the supplier need to Undertake the full project (not just recruit participants and provide lab environment) i.e.:
• Prepare facilitation guide
• Recruit and manage testers
• Provide a lab or remote viewing facilities
• Undertake the research moderation
• Deliver a full report on the testing outcomes 		The supplier will need to undertake almost the full project. They will need to recruit and manage testers, provide a lab or remote viewing facilities (for rounds 2 & 3 a lab is required), moderate the research, and deliver a report on the testing outcomes. MaPS will prepare the test script and build the prototype.
4. The budget is for the complete project — all three sessions, 12 users per. The budget is for the complete project — all three sessions, 12 users per.
5. You've listed this under the "research participants" category but are also asking for facilitation. Should this be listed under outcomes? MaPS researched the various DPS frameworks for this requirement before publishing the requirements under the 'find user research participants' option. Our main rational for this being that a number of providers within this lot also have the capability to also provide and or facilitate a test environment.