22
FEBRUARY 2016 PRO INSTALLER
PRO NEWS
www.proinstaller.co.uk
SHARE DRIVING
LICENCE GOES LIVE
The ‘Share Driving Licence’ service from the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) has
now gone live. This will not change the user experience but does signify that it has successfully
passed the 18 service standards for government digital services hosted on GOV.UK.
Among the benefits of the
online service are that it provides up-to-date information
- accessible from anywhere
where there is an internet
connection or access to a
telephone. It also offers better and safer licence checking for third parties - saving
nearly half a million drivers
every year from having to
pay £20 to replace a lost
counterpart.
The DVLA’s challenge was to develop a service that allowed third
parties, such as employers, rental
companies and driving instructors,
a way of checking appropriate
driving licence details from the 45
million driving records held on its
database.
The DVLA explored several concepts of how this could be done
before arriving at a solution to
ensure the driver remains in control of who they share their driving
information with. This involves
the driver generating a check code
from within the View Driving
Licence service, and the third party
redeeming the code to access the
record summary via Check Driving
Licence.
Getting to this stage represents
several months’ worth of user research, and developing the service
from prototype screens to the full
live service. The team worked to
transform users’ thoughts and actions into working software to give
the best user experience possible.
During the nine months of the
prototype or beta stage, the DVLA
carried out 29 rounds of usability
testing, observing users in real
MAJOR
GLASS WINS
INSTALLATION
OF THE YEAR
Votes have been counted and verified and REHAU can now announce
that the winner of its
2015 Installation of
the Year competition is
Hornchurch-based Major Glass and Glazing.
The Essex company’s stunning project in black brown
REHAU TOTAL70c attracted
nearly 50% of the online
votes, ranking above the
three other very impressive
shortlisted projects from
Basfords, Climatec Windows
and Kestral Home Improvements.
The Major Glass and
Glazing installation is a
demonstration of how PVCu
windows can enhance the
appearance of even the most
traditional looking property
with 18 windows, four doors,
two skylights and an exterior
balustrade all installed in the
mock Tudor style house as
part of an overall modernisation project.
The
company
has won not just the honour
and prestige of the REHAU
Installation of the Year title,
but also a digital SLR camera so that the team can go
on capturing great shots of
their work.
As a family company Major
Glass and Glazing specialises in all aspects of glass
and glazing, both residential and commercial, and
prides itself on its ability to
deliver quality installations.
Managing Director Barry
Major has been installing
REHAU profile for 18 years
and believes the design and
quality of the products are
fundamental to his business’
success.
www.rehau.uk
life scenarios navigating their way
through the service. It also analysed over 69,000 comments from
users’ feedback.
The service used all this information to continue to make improvements - all the way up to go-live.
Since the launch of the public beta in May over 7.9 million
records have been viewed with
3.3 million sharing codes created
and over 1.2 million licence checks
completed.
Further usability testing is
planned and the DVLA will be talking to and visiting the companies
who took part in its private beta to
gather further insight and improve
the service. Sessions like these
allow it to design its services to be
the best they can be.
Visit the DVLA blog for updates
and service improvements.