Introduction
The Home Office Life in the UK portfolio is the official learning material for the UK citizenship test. It includes Life in the United Kingdom: A Guide for New Residents – the publication upon which the citizenship test is based. TSO has been the official publisher of the Life in the UK portfolio for more than 20 years.
The challenge
The Home Office wanted to ensure that all users had access to the Life in the UK study material, in their preferred format. We wanted to help the Home Office identify new products that would support people studying for their citizenship test.
The solution
As a result of market research and user insight, we identified the need for a ’test-yourself‘ app to help candidates prepare for their test. This needed to include a mock test to help users identify when they are ready to take the official test.
The scope of the project was to develop an app with the following features:
- official learning material for the test that’s written in clear, simple language
- official practice questions based on the Life in the United Kingdom: A Guide for New Residents publication
- a mock test feature that generates 24 questions using a similar algorithm to the official test, and timed to replicate the conditions of the actual test
- in-built performance tracking to identify areas requiring further study
- references to the Life in the United Kingdom: A Guide for New Residents publication to help users consolidate knowledge.
The Practice Q&A app contains questions written by the Home Office. They are not the live test questions but are designed to give a similar experience to the actual test.
We developed the Practice Q&A app using our in-house app platform, built by TSO developers. Our platform allows products to be prototyped and built quickly and efficiently for both iOS and Android.
Our solution delivered a consistent user experience across both platforms (in line with the GDS Service Manual requirements), and the apps were delivered with time and cost savings.
The result
The Practice Q&A app has proven to be a success, with more than 100k downloads since launch and sales are growing year on year.
The Home Office was delighted that it could now direct users to an official app, in which it is confident the technology and content are fit for purpose, meeting the needs of users studying for their Life in the UK test.
