Triad’s Common User Interface template saves every project team six weeks development time
Through its work with a UK law enforcement client, Triad identified an opportunity to save project teams the task of creating their own set of approved Common User Interface (CUI) components. Inspired by the usability and insights that led to the GOV.UK Design System, Triad built an out-of-the-box user interface that has been adopted by the client’s technology department and is now instantly available for any project, saving them about six weeks development time.
About the client
Our client is part of the UK’s law enforcement. Triad has been working with them to assist and improve their operational capability.
The challenge
Through our work with the client, we noticed that all technical project teams began by creating their own set of user interface components. Each project team designed the components, sought user feedback, re-worked them, ensured they were fully accessibility compliant and that they were also aligned with security best practices. This duplication of work seemed unnecessary. Not only did it waste time, but the resultant set of components lacked a common look and feel and ignored the usability insight of the GOV.UK Design System.
The solution
To address this, Triad created a Common User Interface (CUI) template for the client, which was immediately adopted by their technology department. All future projects are now required to use the CUI template, saving each of them weeks’ worth of effort.
The Common User Interface template was based on the components of the GOV.UK Design System, importing them into the technology used by the staff at the client’s technology department and integrating the template into their development tools.
Triad’s out-of-the-box user interface is now instantly available for any project. The CUI provides all the common components that a project is likely to need. It also contains a detailed description of how to use each component, ensuring that staff can get up and running as quickly as possible.
Not requiring any additional configuration and integrating the myriad build processes required to build a user-interface, a single click of a button loads a “clean slate” user interface, ready to be configured for the specific needs of the project.
The result
The CUI has saved each project team around six weeks of development, as they no longer need to create CUI components from scratch. Additionally, using the same components on different projects gives a common look and feel across the technology estate, and provides familiarity between applications, thus reducing the time required to train users on new systems.
By basing the user interface template’s components on those of the GOV.UK Design System, Triad took advantage of GOV.UK’s extensive user research, something which would have otherwise cost many months of time and expense. A chief concern of user-interfaces at our client is accessibility compliance. By using the components of the GOV.UK Design System, much of the work is completed for free.
Triad’s CUI template has been adopted into the technology estate and is available for all staff members to contribute to. In this way, it will evolve with the needs of the technology department, and any updates will be instantly available for old and new projects alike.
The client was delighted, explaining that “Triad went above and beyond with this piece of work. They also showcased the CUI to our community of developers, encouraging reuse and collaboration which is hugely appreciated.”
