Information Commissioner's Office - Design tests for the Children’s Code design guidance

Description

Summary of the work The ICO requires a team to collaboratively research and prototype ways to test that the design of digital services conform with elements of the Age Appropriate Design Code, initially focussing on the Transparency standard. Expected Contract Length 3 months Latest start date Monday 10 January 2022 Budget Range It’s estimated that the work can be delivered between the budget range of £35,000 - £50,000 Why the Work is Being Done The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) is the UK’s independent authority set up to uphold information rights in the public interest, promoting openness by public bodies and data privacy for individuals. The ICO recently published the Children’s Code design guidance to help designers and product teams design products and services that conform with the Age Appropriate Design Code (AADC). The guidance explains key concepts around transparency, shows how to apply them through User Experience (UX) design and provides practical tools for teams to use in their own contexts. The first iteration of the design guidance focusses on transparency as it is a key part of the Children’s Code and a common challenge for online services. The ICO aims to add other AADC standards to the design guidance over time and develop design interventions for other policy areas. The ICO would like to understand what additional support they could provide to give designers confidence their designs are conformant with the AADC. This work will continue supporting practitioners to implement the Code and develop a process for designing, testing and assessing designs in context of data protection. Problem to Be Solved The AADC requires organisations take a risk-based approach to implementing the standards. Designers must apply the Code in their own contexts and create appropriate design solutions depending on how their service uses children's data. The Children’s Code design guidance includes checklists that summarise key concepts but does not offer practical tools to assess if designs are conformant. Following research engagements with the design community, the ICO learned designers struggle to have confidence that they are making the right design decision for their situation. The ICO currently does not have a well-informed view of the types of mechanisms, tests, or indicators that may be useful for organisations to check if their designs conform with different aspects of the Code throughout the design and development process. The ICO would like to develop resources that help organisations consistently assess designs and gain confidence they conform with elements of the AADC, and the Children’s Code design guidance. While the design tests will focus on the transparency standard and the Children’s Code design guidance, the final output should surface how the design tests might be extrapolated to apply to other standards in the AADC or other data protection principles. Who Are the Users • Designers working on digital products – they need to understand the ICO’s Children’s Code design guidance and make relevant changes to their products so that they conform with the Code • Data protection teams for digital products - they are usually accountable for their organisation complying with the UK GDPR and conforming with the AADC. They work with design and product teams to ensure products are compliant. • ICO assurance teams – audit and investigation teams conduct assessments of organisations to check they comply Work Already Done The design tests project will build on the Children’s Code design guidance published in early September. Existing Team The existing team consists of one Principal Technology Adviser and one Principal Technology Adviser – UX design specialist. They will be supported by Head of Technology and Head of Regulatory Futures. Current Phase Discovery Skills & Experience • Up-to date knowledge on mechanisms for testing and assessing the service and user experience design of digital products and mapping product conformance testing to policy requirements - 25 points • Have successfully led projects to understand complex problem spaces and collaboratively develop solutions that met user needs and achieved project outcomes - 25 points • Can demonstrate projects that required engaging with multiple internal and external stakeholders, facilitating workshop sessions and translating insights into project actions or recommendations - 20 points • Can demonstrate a range research approaches and synthesis methods that met project needs and achieved project outcomes - 20 points • Show a range of projects where you have produced different deliverables to meet the specific needs of the project - 15 points • Have used agile approaches to deliver project outcomes within a 12 week project timeline and can demonstrate plan to deliver value over the duration of the project - 15 points Nice to Haves • Have worked on projects that focused on creating designs that were compliant with data protection law - 5 points • Have worked on projects that needed to conform with the Children’s Code - 5 points • Have experience creating tools used by audit and investigation teams - 5 points • Have experience creating practical tools for designers - 5 points • Have experience creating digital products likely to be accessed to children - 5 points • Have an understanding of child development needs - 5 points Work Location Work will take place remotely via Teams. Working Arrangments The supplier can complete the work according to their own working day but will be available to collaborate with the ICO team between 9:00 – 18:00 Monday to Friday. Security Clearance BPSS or similar No. of Suppliers to Evaluate 3 Proposal Criteria • Outline your proposed approach and methodology for the project including how your team will achieve project deliverables and outcomes - 25 points • Describe how your approach will meet user needs and incorporate different stakeholder views - 20 points • Describe how you identify risks and dependencies and outline approaches to managing them throughout projects - 20 points • Describe the structure of the project team and how you will ensure they deliver high-quality outputs - 15 points Cultural Fit Criteria • Work as a team with our organisation - 5 points • Be transparent and collaborative when making decisions - 5 points • Share knowledge and experience with other team members - 5 points • Be comfortable standing up for their discipline - 5 points Payment Approach Fixed price Assessment Method • Case study • Work history • Reference • Presentation Evaluation Weighting Technical competence 70% Cultural fit 10% Price 20% Questions from Suppliers No questions have been answered yet.