Problem Statement
In 2022/23 HMRC received over 1 million calls from users because they couldn’t see what was going on with their tax and benefit activities online.
They need reassurance that everything is ok and they’ve done what they need to do so they don’t worry.
However, often users don't get confirmation that their actions with HMRC have been recorded and are unable to track their progress online.
How this would be beneficial? in the large context
We have defined ‘Events’ as a feature to present users with changes in their circumstances that impact tax, to make sure they understand the impact of events (like a change in family circumstances, place of residence, job and education) in affecting both the allowances/deductions they are entitled to and the amount of tax to be deducted: an Event represents a notification that we want the user to be aware of.
The variety of possible Events connected to the different tax regimes (PAYE / Self Assessment), claims and other elements in the broader tax ecosystem covered by a personal account (e.g. Child Benefit, NI and State Pension, Annual Tax Summary, …) require a structured pattern for the ‘Event’ item and for its container (the ‘Activity Feed’), to enhance the overall user experience, efficiency, and consistency in design. The pattern we have designed provides a consistent and pre-tested solution to common design problems where Service Owners are aiming at “presenting to users the recent changes of circumstances that have an impact on their tax”, making interfaces easier to learn and use. This will lead to faster development cycles and a more trustworthy user experience.
The pattern aims at providing:
Familiarity and predictability (in both the ‘Event’ and the ‘View page’ pages, all inside the ‘Activity Feed’ structure)
Reduced learning curve for users
Faster design and development, and easier maintenance
Consistency across taxes and benefits ecosystem (also by using the ‘Tax regime’ + ‘Tax year’ framework, that helps users refer to the right domain) / inside the ‘Account’ experience
Research
This pattern has been tested with 37 participants across 6 rounds of user research. This included participants with neurodiversity, visual impairments and English as their second language.
The research showed that users understood:
The feed was a list of things they had done with HMRC, HMRC had done or a third party such as their employer had done with HMRC on their behalf
What tax or benefit the activity related to, for example, child benefit, self assessment
What tax year an activity related to, for example, 2023 to 2024
The date when the activity happened
They can see more activities by clicking on ‘all activity’
They can click an activity to find out more information the activity
More research is needed with users of assistive technology.
Suggested Guidance
A list of the 5 most recent things that have happened in a user's account. These could be things:
HMRC has done
(eg. a change in Income Tax/tax code, or made a Child Benefit payment)
the user has done
(eg. complete a tax return)
a 3rd party has done
(eg. an employer making a salary payment)
Activities are always prefixed with the service name and - if applicable - the tax year. This means that they make sense when combined with activities from different services or tax years.
Selecting an activity card leads to a page with more information about the activity, including a 'What happens next' section and any relevant support/guidance links.
After 5 activities, a link appears to 'All activity': a feed of all activity going back as far as technically possible. In the account, they can be filtered by service and tax year.
Problem Statement
In 2022/23 HMRC received over 1 million calls from users because they couldn’t see what was going on with their tax and benefit activities online.
They need reassurance that everything is ok and they’ve done what they need to do so they don’t worry.
However, often users don't get confirmation that their actions with HMRC have been recorded and are unable to track their progress online.
How this would be beneficial? in the large context
We have defined ‘Events’ as a feature to present users with changes in their circumstances that impact tax, to make sure they understand the impact of events (like a change in family circumstances, place of residence, job and education) in affecting both the allowances/deductions they are entitled to and the amount of tax to be deducted: an Event represents a notification that we want the user to be aware of.
The variety of possible Events connected to the different tax regimes (PAYE / Self Assessment), claims and other elements in the broader tax ecosystem covered by a personal account (e.g. Child Benefit, NI and State Pension, Annual Tax Summary, …) require a structured pattern for the ‘Event’ item and for its container (the ‘Activity Feed’), to enhance the overall user experience, efficiency, and consistency in design. The pattern we have designed provides a consistent and pre-tested solution to common design problems where Service Owners are aiming at “presenting to users the recent changes of circumstances that have an impact on their tax”, making interfaces easier to learn and use. This will lead to faster development cycles and a more trustworthy user experience.
The pattern aims at providing:
Familiarity and predictability (in both the ‘Event’ and the ‘View page’ pages, all inside the ‘Activity Feed’ structure)
Reduced learning curve for users
Faster design and development, and easier maintenance
Consistency across taxes and benefits ecosystem (also by using the ‘Tax regime’ + ‘Tax year’ framework, that helps users refer to the right domain) / inside the ‘Account’ experience
Research
This pattern has been tested with 37 participants across 6 rounds of user research. This included participants with neurodiversity, visual impairments and English as their second language.
The research showed that users understood:
The feed was a list of things they had done with HMRC, HMRC had done or a third party such as their employer had done with HMRC on their behalf
What tax or benefit the activity related to, for example, child benefit, self assessment
What tax year an activity related to, for example, 2023 to 2024
The date when the activity happened
They can see more activities by clicking on ‘all activity’
They can click an activity to find out more information the activity
More research is needed with users of assistive technology.
Suggested Guidance
A list of the 5 most recent things that have happened in a user's account. These could be things:
HMRC has done
(eg. a change in Income Tax/tax code, or made a Child Benefit payment)
the user has done
(eg. complete a tax return)
a 3rd party has done
(eg. an employer making a salary payment)
Activities are always prefixed with the service name and - if applicable - the tax year. This means that they make sense when combined with activities from different services or tax years.
Selecting an activity card leads to a page with more information about the activity, including a 'What happens next' section and any relevant support/guidance links.
After 5 activities, a link appears to 'All activity': a feed of all activity going back as far as technically possible. In the account, they can be filtered by service and tax year.