PROJECT OVERVIEW
The National Citizen Service (NCS) is a voluntary personal and social development program for 16–17 year olds in England and Northern Ireland, funded largely by money from the UK Government. As part of Leo Burnett's re-brand there was a re-platforming of the back end, brand refresh and mobile design (that currently didn't exist). In 2019, NCS created a network of Management and Delivery Partners for the 16 and 17-year-olds who took part in NCS. A Youth Voice Forum was also introduced, which won the Youth Friendly Employer Awards for Youth Voice in 2021.
As Team Lead I managed the small team in a fast delivering and agile method. We were assigned a war room, ran a series of stakeholder interviews and created a series of UX documents that demonstrated our thinking to the client before prototyping and build. The entire project was built mobile first and was aimed at teenagers so had to be exciting, engaging but simple to engage.
RESEARCH & DEFINITION
Both the current struggling tech platform, delicate nature of the handling of teenage audiences and their personal data and the nature of the NCS engagement all had their own challenges.
DESIGN & PROTOTYPING
The initial prototype was put together in 2 weeks, tested, refined and then built in 10 weeks. When the scheme was launched critics expected it to be an unpopular and unsuccessful non-military version of national service. Subsequently, however, it achieved cross-party support in Parliament.
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