Webchat

Designer

Prototyping how webchat might work on GOV.UK.

I spent two weeks prototyping how webchat might work on GOV.UK. Many government departments were interested in using webchat to help support their users, but the existing solutions had poor usability and accessibility.

An idea for how a user could switch between chat and page content.

My prototype explores how chat might work on mobile and how users could navigate to different pages without requiring chat refreshes or a separate chat window.

Webchat on desktop.

Exploring use cases

As well as prototyping interactions for webchat, I looked at how it might be offered to users in combination with other support channels.

A flow chart diagram of how webchat would get used. — Flowchart of proposed webchat design.

The code for the prototype is on github, though it’s a bit messy. The project was later taken on as an alpha.