Read on Twitter
I’ve now experienced a full range of corona testing experiences and can confirm there is a lot of diversity in service delivery. While it’s impressive in a way from a standing start there really is a decent amount of room for improvement in service design.
Best bit is probably the ‘book at test’ bit of govuk, although even that is overly long, complicated, confusing at times and the options you get back on where and when to get a test are either great (son tested in an hour nearby) or bonkers (drive 10 miles across London).
The instructions at the 2 sites I’ve been too have not been consistent, it relies entirely on the knowledge of the people instructing you (who are brill but often trying to help more than one person at once) and can be chaotic.
The home tests take a while to arrive, even longer to get results back and man o man I don’t know how most people get through it successfully. Complicated instructions, lots of tech input on smartphones which will exclude so man etc etc. Room for improvement.
Had a private test booked pre-Xmas so tried that today too seeing as it was already paid for. Generally the simplest service design, quickest to book and get test done (not cos private but because service design). Although contradictory email vs sms on results v unhelpful.
In summary, given we only started doing this stuff 9 months ago it’s a pretty decent service all round. But you can tell it’s been engineered in silos rather than designed as a service.
Offline, human aspect saves it from itself as digital not doing its job as well as might. Definitely not a seamless ‘omni-channel’ experience. But it works thanks to the lovely helpful people papering over the cracks.
Ooooh and contact tracing? Seemingly non-existent other than a phone call to remind me when I need to isolate til. Can only imagine the impact the lack of contact tracing is having on the spread. Good job I did it for myself 
