Barclays

Empathise

The process began with understanding the behaviours, frustrations, and expectations of two primary user groups: apprentices and onboarding managers. I conducted interviews, heuristic reviews, and a cognitive mapping exercise to uncover pain points. To synthesise qualitative insights, I applied the Rose, Thorn, Bud method, identifying moments of opportunity, frustration, and existing strengths.

This stage revealed that apprentices lacked a clear, unified space for training and goals, while managers were burdened by manual, repetitive processes when setting up new hires.

Define

With research insights in hand, I reframed the problem using Point-of-View (POV) statements and How Might We (HMW) prompts. I developed lightweight personas to reflect typical users, an apprentice navigating training materials, and a manager setting up multiple apprentices simultaneously.

Defining the core challenges made it clear the solution needed to be more than just a content portal, it had to centralise resources, automate requests, and visualise progress for all parties involved.

Ideate

Using the HMW statements as prompts, I brainstormed a wide range of potential features. To avoid scope creep and focus on the highest-value ideas, I applied the RICE scoring model and mapped concepts using an Effort/Impact matrix (LUMA method).

This helped identify features that were not only feasible but also highly impactful:

• A training hub for apprentices

• A task timeline showing progress and deadlines

• A basket-style request system for managers

• A status dashboard for team collaboration

Prototype

I translated the prioritised features into low- and mid-fidelity wireframes to test structure, flow, and basic functionality. Feedback from an initial focus group led to new features, such as a request summary basket, being added to improve manager workflows. Apprentices also highlighted the need for clearly grouped training modules, leading to the integration of content categories by team, role, and business area.

Each screen was designed to be simple, accessible, and aligned with the Barclays internal ecosystem, using scalable components and minimal friction.

Test

Once the high-fidelity wireframes were complete, I ran a second round of interviews with apprentices and managers to validate improvements. I asked comparable questions to those used during the initial empathy phase to assess whether the key frustrations had been addressed.

Feedback was overwhelmingly positive. Apprentices found the interface clearer and more motivating, and managers reported that automated features and the visual status tools would significantly reduce manual admin tasks.