Resources for teachers
Product and design in the classroom: a teacher's guide
Everything a teacher needs to bring product and design to life: games you can run tomorrow, a contrast checker that works to the accessibility guidelines, a click test that draws a pattern from your own times, a set of made-up testers who miss the problems you would, a funnel that shows where people give up, three true stories, the honest evidence on the degree route and the apprenticeship route, and what the curriculum says. Free, sourced, and honest about what the evidence does and does not show.
For teachers. Every figure is sourced and was checked on 4 November 2026. Every app, tester, colour list, funnel and card sort in the games is made up for the lesson, and each game says so. The walk-round and the watching activities use things in your own building: choose the route and the task in advance, keep students out of areas and off equipment that are not open to them, and avoid any screen that shows someone's private information.
The activities
Twelve activities, balanced between the screen and the world
There are twelve activities. Five need no devices at all, and eight are interactive on this page. Some start at a screen, some start with students walking round the building, watching someone try something or cutting paper, and some suit both, so a teacher with a student who likes to make and a teacher with one who likes to analyse each have something to run on Monday. Each one has a plain guide above it that says what it is, exactly what to do and what you should notice, and teacher notes with questions and things to watch for.
Works with no devicesStarts out in the world
Notice the design
A ten minute walk round the building to find three things that work well and three that do not, from doors to hand dryers to the signs. Nobody has to have a screen.
15 to 20 minutes
Needs a screenStarts at a screen
Hit the target
Click between two bars as fast as you can while still hitting them, round after round, with the bars getting thinner and further apart. Then see the pattern in your own times.
15 to 25 minutes
Needs a screenStarts at a screen
Can you read it?
Pick a text colour and a background and get the contrast ratio the accessibility guidelines would give them, then see what a task list that uses only colour looks like in grey.
20 to 30 minutes
Needs a screenStarts at a screen
How many testers?
Twelve made-up testers try a made-up lunch app with twenty problems in it. Add them one at a time, watch the problems found climb, and compare it with the curve the usual rule predicts.
20 to 30 minutes
Works with no devicesStarts out in the world
Watch someone try
One student tries to do a small real task with something in your school, and says out loud what they are thinking. Everyone else watches, says nothing and writes down where they stop.
25 to 35 minutes
Works with no devicesSuits both
Sort the cards
Put fourteen things a bus and train app can do into groups, then see how eight made-up people grouped them and where they agreed. Cut the cards from paper, or use the page.
25 to 35 minutes
Works with no devicesStarts out in the world
Prototype on paper
Draw a school lunch ordering screen on paper in ten minutes, then swap and test someone else's by pointing and talking, with you playing the part of the computer.
30 to 40 minutes
Needs a screenStarts at a screen
Where do people give up?
A made-up school trip payment form loses most of the people who start it. Guess where, then find out, and see why the step that loses the most people is not always the one to fix first.
20 to 25 minutes
Needs a screenStarts at a screen
Is B really better?
Version B of a made-up button beats version A, 15% against 12%. Is that a win or luck? Make the test bigger to find out, then watch twenty tests where nothing changed at all.
20 to 30 minutes
Works with no devicesSuits both
Three true stories
A map that ignored geography, a road sign built to be read at speed and a menu that sent a real alert, each told from a source, with questions that make a class decide what the designer should have done.
20 to 30 minutes
Needs a screenSuits both
Eight kinds of design job
Pick any of the eight areas of product and design work, from user research to design systems, and see the jobs in it, what it suits, what it pays and where the pay comes from.
15 to 20 minutes
Needs a screenSuits both
Two ways in
The degree route and the apprenticeship route into design side by side, with the same information for each, from the people who set the standards.
20 to 25 minutes
Download the teacher pack. Timings, step-by-step instructions, discussion questions, answers and sources for every activity, as a PDF or an editable Word file you can adapt.
Why it matters
The case for teaching it
We could just say that design matters and leave it there. But you are the one standing in front of students who will check, so here is what the evidence says, including the awkward parts, because the awkward parts are where the good lessons live.
The work is real and it is wide. The Design Council's 2026 study says the UK design economy employed 2.27 million workers in 2025 and was worth £136.7bn in 2023. Its list of design occupations is very broad: it includes programmers, engineers and architects as well as designers, so it is not a count of UX or product designers. Government figures put employment in the digital sector at about 1.81 million filled jobs in 2025, and the statisticians themselves warn that the estimate has data quality issues.
Is there a shortage of designers? The evidence is thinner than you might expect, so we do not claim one. A government survey of creative employers found that, among those with a skill-shortage vacancy caused by a lack of IT skills, 22.5% said graphic design skills were hard to get, against 6.4% of all businesses. The same report found creative employers less likely than all businesses to report a skill-shortage vacancy at all, 7.2% against 9.8%. The 2026 Digital and Technologies Jobs Plan projects around 800,000 digital and technology roles needing to be filled between 2025 and 2035, but that is for the whole field and not for design. We found no government source that says UX or product design in particular is short of people.
What the evidence does show is that getting design wrong is common and can be measured. WebAIM's 2026 study found detectable accessibility failures on 95.9% of the million most visited home pages, with low contrast text the most common at 83.9%, and warns that automatic tools miss things. The Department for Work and Pensions estimates that 16.7 million people in the UK are disabled, one in four, and Colour Blind Awareness says about 1 in 12 men and 1 in 200 women have a colour vision deficiency. Everyone in those figures uses the things your students will one day help to make.
And design is a subject students already study. The national curriculum for design and technology asks students to understand user needs, to work iteratively and to test their ideas against the views of the people they are for, and the independent curriculum review said that understanding the design process and developing iterative design skills should remain fundamental.
Closer to home
Your school or college is a product too
Every school and college runs digital things that students use every day: the website, the timetable, the lunch payment system, the learning platform, the booking form for a parents' evening. They make a better teaching resource than any case study, because students can tell you in one sentence what is wrong with them and who it lets down.
It is also, quietly, a legal matter. Section 85 of the Equality Act 2010 applies the duty to make reasonable adjustments to the responsible body of a school, and section 20 says what that duty is. The public sector accessibility regulations cover the websites and apps of schools only partly, and government guidance says that bodies which are exempt or partly exempt still have the Equality Act duty. A good student project is to ask your school's web team what they have done, and listen to the answer. This is general information, not legal advice.
Starter: notice the design
Before you say the word design, ask students how they open the door to the canteen or the toilets. Give them two minutes to describe what they do. Some push, some pull, and some stop and look for a sign. Someone will have a story about a door that did the opposite of what it looked like.
That is the whole opportunity of this subject. Design is not decoration. It is the reason something works or does not, and nearly everything a student touches was made by someone who was not there when it was used. The work of a designer, a researcher and a product manager is to be there: to find out what people really do, and to change the thing to suit them. Some of that happens at a desk with a screen and some of it happens out in the building, watching someone try, and this pack has activities for both.
Notice the design
A ten minute walk round the building to find three things that work well and three that do not, from doors to hand dryers to the signs. Nobody has to have a screen.
15 to 20 minutesPaper and pens, and a short walk round your building.
What this is
A short walk round your own building to look at ordinary things as a designer would: doors, signs, taps, hand dryers, the printer, the vending machine. Nothing here needs a screen.
What to do
- Go in pairs and walk the route your teacher gives you. Take paper and a pen.
- Find three things that work well and three that do not. For each one write what it is, what it is for, what you tried first, and what happened.
- Choose the one that annoyed you most and write who it would let down, for example someone in a hurry, someone carrying a bag or someone who has never been here.
- Write the smallest change that would fix it.
What you should notice
Most of what goes wrong is not the person's fault. The thing told them to do one thing and meant another, and the people who made it were not there to see it.
How to run it, questions to ask, and what to watch for
Running it
- Tell students they are design inspectors for ten minutes. In pairs they walk a set route round the building and find three things that work well and three that do not.
- For each thing they write what it is, what it is for, what a person probably tries first, and what actually happens.
- Back in the room, each pair picks one thing that does not work and says who it lets down: someone in a hurry, someone carrying things, someone who cannot see well, someone new to the building.
- Finish by asking what the smallest change would be, and who would need to test it.
Questions to ask
- Who made this, and what did they think you would do?
- Did it work for everyone in your group, or only for some of you?
- Is a sign that needs explaining a good sign?
Watch for
- Students blaming the person who used it. The question is what the design made them do, not what they should have known.
- Everyone choosing the same door. Send pairs in different directions.
- Anything that needs a ladder, a key or going into a room that is not open to students. Choose a route in advance.
Students will be able to: find a design problem in an ordinary object and say who it affects. say what the designer probably meant people to do, and what they did instead. explain that design is about how something works, not only how it looks.
Game: hit the target
Hit the target
Click between two bars as fast as you can while still hitting them, round after round, with the bars getting thinner and further apart. Then see the pattern in your own times.
15 to 25 minutesA mouse, a trackpad or a touch screen, one device per student or per pair.
What this is
A speed test for your hand. You click between two bars as fast as you can while still hitting them. Each round the bars are further apart and thinner, and the page works out how hard each round was and draws a line through your times.
What to do
- Press Start. Click the bright bar, then the other one, back and forth. The first click only starts the clock.
- When the round ends, press the button for the next round. There are six rounds, each harder than the one before.
- Look at the table of your results and at the chart. Is the time going up every round? Do the dots sit near a straight line?
- If you have no mouse, trackpad or touch screen, press Show a made-up student's results instead. Press Clear my results to start again.
What you should notice
The harder the round, the longer it took, and the dots lie roughly along a straight line. That is why designers make the things people press most big and close to where their hand already is.
Click the bright bar, then the other one, back and forth, as fast as you can while still hitting them. Each round the bars are further apart and thinner. There are 6 rounds and each takes a few seconds. This needs a mouse, a trackpad or a touch screen. If you do not have one, show a made-up student's results instead.
Press Start when you are ready.
Your results
| Round | Distance / width | Bits | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 120 / 90 | 1.22 | - |
| 2 | 240 / 70 | 2.15 | - |
| 3 | 360 / 50 | 3.04 | - |
| 4 | 480 / 36 | 3.84 | - |
| 5 | 560 / 24 | 4.60 | - |
| 6 | 640 / 14 | 5.55 | - |
Finish two rounds to see the line.
How to run it, questions to ask, and what to watch for
Running it
- Show the page on a projector and play round one together so everyone sees what to do. Then give students a device each, or one between two.
- Students play all six rounds. The page times only the clicks after the first in each round.
- Ask them to read their own table and chart: did the time go up each round, and was it a straight line?
- If a device has no mouse, trackpad or touch screen, press Show a made-up student's results and use that example for the discussion.
Questions to ask
- Which round took longest, and what made it hard: the distance, the width, or both?
- Where on a phone screen would you put the button people press most often?
- Why might a tiny close button on a pop-up advert be a bad design?
Watch for
- Times that are far higher in the first round than in round two: students were learning the game. Replay if it matters.
- A student with a motor difficulty, a tremor or an unfamiliar device. The game measures the device and the hand together, so do not rank students by it.
- The line of best fit looks neat with six points. It is a classroom picture, not a measurement of anyone.
Students will be able to: say why a small button a long way from where you are is slow to hit. read a straight-line pattern off a chart of their own results. explain that designers make the things people press most often big and close.
Lab: can you read it?
Can you read it?
Pick a text colour and a background and get the contrast ratio the accessibility guidelines would give them, then see what a task list that uses only colour looks like in grey.
20 to 30 minutesA projector for the whole class, or one device per pair.
What this is
A checker for colour pairs. It works out the contrast ratio the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines use, from 1 to 21, and tells you whether the pair is readable for normal text, large text and the edges of a button. Part two shows what a colour-only task list looks like in grey.
What to do
- Under Start from a pair, choose The lightest grey that passes and read the ratio. Then choose One step lighter and read it again.
- Choose Gold on white, then Navy on gold. Notice which pass and which fail, and by how much.
- Type your own colours into the Text colour and Background colour boxes, six digits each, like 0d2436. Find a pair that fails and change one colour until it passes.
- In part two, compare the colour list with the grey one. Then tick Add a shape and a word to each one and look again.
What you should notice
One step on the grey scale is the difference between a pass and a fail, and you cannot see it. And two colours that are easy to tell apart by hue can be almost the same grey, so a colour should never be the only clue.
Contrast is how different the lightness of two colours is, and it decides whether text can be read. The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines turn it into a number from 1 to 21 and set lines that text and controls should reach. These colours are all ones we picked for the lesson.
Part one: is this pair readable?
Looks the same to most eyes, and fails the text test.
The result
4.47 to 1
- Fails: Normal textNeeds 4.5 to 1 (success criterion 1.4.3)
- Passes: Large textNeeds 3 to 1 (success criterion 1.4.3)
- Passes: The edge of a button, an icon or a chart lineNeeds 3 to 1 (success criterion 1.4.11)
The ratio is cut to two places, never rounded up, because 4.499 does not reach 4.5.
Part two: colour alone
A made-up task list says how each task is going by colour. On the left is how you see it. On the right is the same list in grey, as it would look printed in black and white, and close to how it looks if you cannot tell red from green.
In colour
- Task 1
- Task 2
- Task 3
In grey
- Task 1
- Task 2
- Task 3
- Done and Late: 1.01 to 1Closer than 3 to 1, so hard to tell apart by lightness
- Done and Waiting: 2.03 to 1Closer than 3 to 1, so hard to tell apart by lightness
- Late and Waiting: 2.06 to 1Closer than 3 to 1, so hard to tell apart by lightness
Contrast between two status colours is a rough check, not a simulation of any one kind of colour blindness. It shows why a shape or a word should always do the same job as the colour.
How to run it, questions to ask, and what to watch for
Running it
- Start with the lightest grey that passes on white and the one a single step lighter. Ask the class to say which is easier to read before you show the numbers.
- Let students try the other pairs, including the gold on white and the navy on gold, then type in colours of their own, such as the colours in their school or a game they play.
- Ask them to find a pair that fails, then change one colour until it passes. Note how little they had to change.
- Part two: tick Add a shape and a word to each one and compare the grey list with and without it.
Questions to ask
- What did you have to change to make a failing pair pass, and did it look worse?
- Which three places in our school or on our website use colour alone to tell you something?
- Who else, besides someone with colour blindness, benefits from text that is easy to read?
Watch for
- Students believing a pass means good design. Contrast is one of many things a design needs.
- Screens differ. A pair that is fine on a bright monitor can be hard in sunlight.
- The grey version is a rough check, not a simulation of any one kind of colour blindness, and the page says so.
Students will be able to: say what a contrast ratio of 4.5 to 1 means and which text it applies to. find a colour pair that fails and change one colour until it passes. explain why a colour should never be the only way to tell two things apart.
Lab: how many testers?
How many testers?
Twelve made-up testers try a made-up lunch app with twenty problems in it. Add them one at a time, watch the problems found climb, and compare it with the curve the usual rule predicts.
20 to 30 minutesA projector for the whole class, or one device per pair.
What this is
Twelve made-up people try a made-up school lunch app that has twenty problems in it. You add them one at a time and see how many different problems have been found, next to the curve the usual model predicts.
What to do
- Move the Testers who have tried it slider to 1. Read how many problems that one person found.
- Move it up one at a time, and before each click guess whether the total will jump or creep.
- Tick Show the problems nobody has found yet and read the rare ones.
- Under Chance one tester finds one problem, in the model, try 10%, 20%, 31% and 40% and read how many testers it takes to find 85% of the problems.
What you should notice
The first few testers find most of the problems and each one after finds fewer new ones, so the line flattens. The testers are made up and the problems are very uneven, so the real curve and the model do not match exactly. That is why the rule of five is argued about.
A made-up school lunch app has 20 problems in it. 12 made-up testers try it. Each one runs into each problem with a chance we set, so some problems are obvious and some are rare. Add the testers one at a time and watch how many different problems have been found between them.
8 of 20 problems found (40%)
The last tester you added found 8 problems that nobody before them had.
- Found: The Order button is the same colour as the background
- Found: Nothing says whether the lunch has been ordered
- Found: The back arrow throws away the basket
- Found: The text on the picture of the soup cannot be read
- Found: The price shows after the order, not before
- Found: The 'Allergies' tab is hidden in a menu
- Found: The vegetarian symbol is the same as the vegan one
- Found: Two items share one photograph
Problems found, and what the usual model predicts
Solid line: the made-up testersDashed line: the model, if each tester finds 31% of the problems
- Model, five testers
- 84%
- Testers to find 85%
- 6
In this made-up app the average chance that one tester finds one problem is 34%. The problems are very uneven, so the made-up testers do not follow the smooth curve exactly. Real products are uneven too, which is one reason the rule of five is argued about.
How to run it, questions to ask, and what to watch for
Running it
- Introduce the made-up lunch app and say the twenty problems are made up. Move the slider to one tester and ask how many problems they found.
- Add a tester at a time. Before each click ask the class to predict whether the total will jump or creep.
- Switch on Show the problems nobody has found yet and read some of the rare ones.
- Change the chance in the model between 10%, 20%, 31% and 40% and see how many testers it takes to find 85% of the problems.
Questions to ask
- Why did the early testers find more new problems than the later ones?
- What kind of problem would a small group of testers keep missing?
- If your product is used by very different people, what does that do to the rule of five?
Watch for
- Students taking five as a rule. The page shows it is an average from a model and that people argue about it.
- The made-up testers are fixed, so every device shows the same twelve. That is on purpose.
- Mixing up the number of testers with the number of problems.
Students will be able to: explain why a handful of testers finds many of the problems and each extra tester finds fewer new ones. read a curve that levels off. say why the rule of thumb is argued about, and what it assumes.
Make: watch someone try
Watch someone try
One student tries to do a small real task with something in your school, and says out loud what they are thinking. Everyone else watches, says nothing and writes down where they stop.
25 to 35 minutesSomething real to try (a school web page, a printer, a vending machine), paper and pens.
What this is
You watch someone try to do one small real task with something in your school, and write down what they do. You say nothing and you do not help. It is the cheapest way there is to find out what is wrong with something.
What to do
- Your teacher picks the task and one student volunteers. They say out loud what they are looking at and thinking as they go.
- Everyone else writes two columns: what the person did, and where they paused, went the wrong way or looked confused. Write what you saw, not what you think.
- After five minutes, compare notes. Find the pauses that more than one of you saw.
- Pick one and write the change you would make.
What you should notice
What people do and what they say they did are often different, and the pauses are where the design is failing. Watching is harder than it looks, because it is very hard not to help.
How to run it, questions to ask, and what to watch for
Running it
- Pick a real task with something in your school: finding the term dates on the school website, using the library catalogue, topping up a lunch account, working a vending machine.
- One student does the task and says out loud what they are looking at and thinking. They have never done it before, if you can manage that.
- Everyone else watches and writes down, in two columns, what the person did and where they paused or went wrong. Nobody helps and nobody talks.
- After five minutes, compare notes: which pauses did several people see? Choose one and write one change you would make.
Questions to ask
- What did they say they were doing, and what did they actually do?
- How hard was it not to help?
- Would the same thing have happened to someone who had never used a computer?
Watch for
- The person being tested feeling they are being marked. Say the thing is being tested, not them.
- Observers writing what they think rather than what they saw. Ask for the action, not the opinion.
- Private information on a screen. Use a public page or an account made for the lesson.
Students will be able to: observe someone without helping them, and record what they did rather than what they said. tell the difference between what a person did and the reason they gave. turn three observations into one change you would make.
Method: sort the cards
Sort the cards
Put fourteen things a bus and train app can do into groups, then see how eight made-up people grouped them and where they agreed. Cut the cards from paper, or use the page.
25 to 35 minutesIndex cards or paper slips, or a projector or one device per pair.
What this is
A card sort. You group fourteen things a made-up bus and train app can do into groups that make sense to a passenger, then see how eight made-up people grouped the same cards.
What to do
- Cut or write the fourteen card names on slips of paper and sort them into groups of your own choosing. Give each group a name.
- Open the page. Under Pick a card, choose Buy a ticket and read which cards the eight made-up people put it with.
- Try Lost property and Sign in. Notice which ones the people agree about and which ones they split over.
- Compare with your own groups. Where did you agree with the eight, and where did you not?
What you should notice
Where six or more of the eight agree, the cards probably belong under one heading. Where nobody agrees, the card name is probably unclear or it belongs in more than one place. The eight people are made up, so the pattern is for practice.
8 made-up people each sorted these 14 things a bus and train app can do into groups, and named the groups however they liked. Pick a card to see which cards people put it with. The people are invented, so the pattern is for practice, not a finding about real passengers.
People who put Buy a ticket in a group with another card:
- Season tickets8/8
- Fares8/8
- Student discounts7/8
- Refunds5/8
- Sign in4/8
- Timetables0/8
- Live departures0/8
- Delays and cancellations0/8
- Lost property0/8
- Help for disabled passengers0/8
- Contact us0/8
- Trip planner0/8
- Station maps0/8
Six or more of the eight put Buy a ticket with Season tickets, Fares, Student discounts. That is a good sign they belong under one heading.
How to run it, questions to ask, and what to watch for
Running it
- Give each pair fourteen slips with the card names from the page. Ask them to group the slips in a way that would make sense to a passenger, and to name each group.
- Do not tell them how many groups to make. Collect the groupings on the board.
- Open the page, pick a card and show how often the eight made-up people put each other card with it. Then compare with the class's own sorts.
- Ask where the class agreed and where it split, and what the split says about the words on the cards.
Questions to ask
- Where did people split, and was it the card or the group name that was the problem?
- Would a passenger group these the way the app's builder would?
- What would you do with a card that nobody can agree about?
Watch for
- Students sorting by who would make each feature, not by who would use it.
- The eight sorts are made up. Do not present the pattern as how real passengers think.
- Cards that sit alone. A lone card is information, not a mistake.
Students will be able to: group a list of things in a way that makes sense to the person using them, not the person who built them. read a table of how often people put two things together. say what it means when people disagree about where something goes.
Make: prototype on paper
Prototype on paper
Draw a school lunch ordering screen on paper in ten minutes, then swap and test someone else's by pointing and talking, with you playing the part of the computer.
30 to 40 minutesPaper, pens and scissors. No devices.
What this is
A paper prototype: a screen drawn on paper in ten minutes, tested by a real person who pretends it is real. It is how a team finds the big mistakes before anyone has built anything.
What to do
- Draw a school lunch ordering screen on one sheet of paper, for someone in a hurry. Buttons are boxes. Take no more than ten minutes.
- Swap with a partner. They are the user: they point at what they would press and say what they expect to happen. You are the computer: you show or draw the next screen when they press something.
- Do not help. Write down three things they did that you did not expect.
- Swap back, then change your drawing for one of the things you saw.
What you should notice
A tester will find a problem in your drawing in minutes that you could not see in an hour of looking at it yourself. Paper is quick and cheap to throw away, so nobody minds being told it is wrong.
How to run it, questions to ask, and what to watch for
Running it
- Give a brief: a school lunch ordering screen for someone who is in a hurry. Students have ten minutes to draw it on paper, one screen on one sheet, with buttons drawn as boxes.
- Pairs swap. One person is the user and says what they would press. The other is the computer: they hold up the screen that would come next, which they draw or cut out as they go.
- Swap back and ask each pair to write down three things the tester did that the drawer did not expect.
- Close by asking what they would change, and how long it took to find that out compared with building the app first.
Questions to ask
- What did you learn from watching someone use your drawing that you could not have learned by looking at it?
- How much of the design did you throw away, and did that matter?
- What can you not find out with paper?
Watch for
- Students trying to make the drawing look good. Ugly paper is quicker to change and people are kinder to criticise it.
- The computer helping the user. They only show the next screen when the user presses something.
- Scissors. Agree how they are handled before you start.
Students will be able to: sketch a screen quickly enough that throwing it away does not hurt. test an idea with a real person before anything is built. say what they learned from watching someone use their drawing.
Lab: where do people give up?
Where do people give up?
A made-up school trip payment form loses most of the people who start it. Guess where, then find out, and see why the step that loses the most people is not always the one to fix first.
20 to 25 minutesA projector for the whole class, or one device per pair.
What this is
A made-up school trip payment form, with how many of a thousand parents got to each step. You guess where the most people were lost, then see the numbers two ways.
What to do
- Look at the five bars. Under Where were the most people lost, pick the step you think loses the most people.
- Read the table. For each step it shows the share who carried on and how many were lost.
- Read the three boxes: Most people lost, Smallest share carried on, and Got all the way.
- Decide which step you would fix first, and write what you would need to find out before you change it.
What you should notice
The step that loses the most people is not the same as the step with the smallest share carrying on. A number tells you where people left but never why.
A made-up school trip payment: a thousand parents were sent a link. This is how many reached each step. First, guess where the most people were lost. Then look at the answer.
- Got the link1,000
- Opened the form640
- Picked the trip600
- Added payment details270
- Paid240
How to run it, questions to ask, and what to watch for
Running it
- Show the five steps and say the numbers are made up. Ask each student to write down where they think most people were lost, then press their choice.
- Read the table of the share who carried on and the number lost at each step. Show the three boxes.
- Ask whether the step losing the most people is the same as the step with the smallest share carrying on, and why that matters.
- Finish by asking what you would want to find out before changing the form, and how you would find it out.
Questions to ask
- Which would you fix first, and what would make you choose?
- A number says people left. What does it not say?
- What would you ask someone who left at the payment step?
Watch for
- Students taking the numbers as proof of why people left. They show where, not why.
- Confusion between a share and a count. Write both on the board for one step.
- The data is made up. Do not let it be quoted as a real school's figures.
Students will be able to: work out what share of people carry on from one step to the next. tell the step that loses the most people from the step with the smallest share carrying on. say what you would want to find out before changing the form.
Lab: is B really better?
Is B really better?
Version B of a made-up button beats version A, 15% against 12%. Is that a win or luck? Make the test bigger to find out, then watch twenty tests where nothing changed at all.
20 to 30 minutesA projector for the whole class, or one device per pair.
What this is
A made-up button comes in two versions. B did better than A, 15% against 12%. The page shows whether that gap is a win or luck, in tests of different sizes, and then twenty tests where the two versions were exactly the same.
What to do
- Under People who saw each version, start at 1,000. Read the gap, the chance of a gap that big by luck, and the range the true gap probably lies in.
- Choose 100, then 10,000. Notice what stays the same and what changes.
- In part two, count the tests marked looks like a win. Every one of them is two identical versions.
- Say, in one sentence, why you should not trust one lucky test.
What you should notice
The gap is the same size every time, 3 points, but with 100 people it is nowhere near enough to tell from luck and with 10,000 it is clear. And in twenty tests of two identical versions, about one still looks like a win.
A made-up "Join" button comes in two versions. Version A gets a click from 12% of the people who see it and version B from 15%. That looks like a win for B. Is it?
Part one: the same gap, in a bigger test
- Clicks
- A: 120 of 1,000
B: 150 of 1,000 - Gap, B minus A
- +3.0 points
- Chance of a gap this big by luck
- 5.0%
- The true gap is probably between
- +0.0 and +6.0 points
That is under the usual line of 5%. A gap this big would be rare if the versions were really the same.
Part two: twenty tests where nothing changed
Version A and version B are exactly the same here, and 12% of the 500 people on each side click. Any gap is luck. Each row is one test.
- Test 1: 57 against 57
- Test 2: 71 against 59
- Test 3: 48 against 59
- Test 4: 56 against 76
- Test 5: 61 against 70
- Test 6: 62 against 66
- Test 7: 53 against 58
- Test 8: 61 against 68
- Test 9: 65 against 74
- Test 10: 57 against 53
- Test 11: 56 against 57
- Test 12: 57 against 68
- Test 13: 67 against 58
- Test 14: 57 against 67
- Test 15: 65 against 41looks like a win
- Test 16: 67 against 51
- Test 17: 55 against 58
- Test 18: 57 against 64
- Test 19: 58 against 70
- Test 20: 67 against 52
1 of the 20 identical pairs looks like a win at the usual line, with no change at all. About one in twenty is what the line allows.
How to run it, questions to ask, and what to watch for
Running it
- Start at 1,000 people on each side: 12% against 15%. Ask the class whether B won, and let them argue it before you read the chance of luck.
- Move up and down through the sizes. Ask what changes and what does not.
- Part two: show the twenty tests where both versions are the same. Count the ones that look like a win.
- Ask what that means for a team that runs lots of tests and only reports the wins.
Questions to ask
- Why does the gap stay the same while the answer changes?
- If you ran twenty tests and one looked like a win, would you trust it?
- What else besides luck could make B look better?
Watch for
- Students reading the chance of luck as the chance that B is better. It is not the same thing, and the page words it carefully.
- The twenty identical tests use a fixed seed, so every device shows the same twenty. A real set would vary.
- The test uses a normal approximation. It is fine at these sizes and rough at 100 people, and the page says so.
Students will be able to: explain why the same gap can mean nothing in a small test and something in a big one. read a chance of luck and a range for the true gap. say why a test that looks like a win once in twenty tries proves nothing on its own.
True stories
Three true stories about design
Each story below comes from a source you can open, and each ends with a question for the class. The third is about a real alert that frightened real people, so read it first and decide how to handle it.
A map that ignored geography. The Transport for London archive says that in 1931 Harry Beck, an unemployed engineering draughtsman, sketched a version of the Underground diagram that straightened the lines, tried diagonals, evened out the distances and showed the connections instead of the geography. It was rejected: 45 and 90 degree angles were thought too revolutionary and incomprehensible for the public. Nearly a year later the publicity team changed its mind and trialled it, and Beck was paid 10 guineas for the design, the card folders and the artwork. The V&A points out the catch: ignoring geography makes the map misleading about the distances between stations, and very clear to use. Which matters more to someone changing trains?
A sign for reading at speed. The Design Museum says Jock Kinneir and Margaret Calvert designed Britain's road and motorway signs between 1957 and 1967. Kinneir began with a question: what do I want to know, trying to read a sign at speed. They concluded that a mix of upper and lower case letters would be more legible than capitals, developed the typeface later named Transport, tested signs in a car park and in Hyde Park, and used a new reflective material so white lettering could be read at night. The Department for Transport says the committee on motorway signs was set up in 1958, and the committee on all other roads began in 1961 (the Design Museum dates the first to 1957). The GOV.UK brand guidelines say the GOV.UK typeface is based on the road sign typeface. What would you have tested first?
A menu that sent a real alert. On 13 January 2018 a false alert about a ballistic missile threat was sent to the public in Hawaii. The US Federal Communications Commission found that it caused 38 minutes of confusion, fear and uncertainty before it was corrected, and that it came from a combination of human error and inadequate safeguards. One of those safeguards was the screen: the software let people send live alerts and internal test alerts from the same interface, with the test option and the live option on the same drop-down menu, and the confirmation prompt was the same for both and did not show the message text. The FCC says common industry practice is to keep the live system separate. It also says the employee mistakenly believed the threat was real, so the menu was one part of what went wrong and not the whole of it. What would you change, and who would you test it with?
Three true stories
A map that ignored geography, a road sign built to be read at speed and a menu that sent a real alert, each told from a source, with questions that make a class decide what the designer should have done.
20 to 30 minutesPrinted copies of the three stories from the teacher pack, or a projector.
What this is
Three true stories about design, each from a source you can open. Read one, answer three questions, then swap and argue with another group.
What to do
- Get one story from your teacher. Read it, including the source named at the end.
- Answer: what was the problem, what did the designer change, and who did it help or hurt?
- Swap with another group. Tell them what you would have tested first, and with whom.
- As a class, say what the three stories have in common.
What you should notice
In each one a small choice about how something looked or worked had a big effect on a lot of people, and in each one someone could have found out earlier by watching a real person try it.
How to run it, questions to ask, and what to watch for
Running it
- Print the three stories from the teacher pack, one per group, with their sources. Each group reads its story and answers: what was the problem, what did the designer change, who did it help.
- Groups swap and argue with each other: what would you have tested first, and who would you have tested it with?
- Bring the class together and ask what the three stories have in common.
- Ask students to find a story of their own from something they use every day.
Questions to ask
- Was the problem the designer's fault, the user's, or neither?
- What could you have tested cheaply before anything was built?
- Who was left out of the design?
Watch for
- Treating a design as if one person did it all. Each story names its sources and who did what.
- Hindsight. Ask what the designer could have known at the time.
- The third story is about a real alert that frightened real people. Handle it with care and let students step out of it.
Students will be able to: say what each designer changed and who it helped. explain how a small interface choice can have a large effect on people. argue for a different design and say what they would test first.
Careers
Eight kinds of product and design job
Eight kinds of design job
Pick any of the eight areas of product and design work, from user research to design systems, and see the jobs in it, what it suits, what it pays and where the pay comes from.
15 to 20 minutesA projector or one device per pair.
What this is
The eight areas of product and design work, taken from the TechSkills Career Matrix, with the jobs in each, what it suits, and what it pays with the source for the pay.
What to do
- Choose an area from the tabs. Read what the work is and the jobs in it.
- Read Jobs in this area and Best suited to, then find Pay, with its source.
- Choose a second area that sounds nothing like the first. Compare them.
- Pick the one you would try first and write why.
What you should notice
Design is not only drawing. User research, product management, content design and accessibility each ask for different strengths, and several do little or no drawing at all.
8 areas of work in product and design, from the TechSkills Career Matrix. Pick one to see what the work is, the jobs in it, what it suits and what it pays, with the source for the pay.
Area 01
UX Research
The scientists of the design world. Finding the 'Why' behind user behaviour.
The scientists of the design world. Finding the 'Why' behind user behaviour.
The desk or degree route
- Jobs in this area
- UX Researcher, Content Strategist, UX Writer, A11y Specialist
- Best suited to
- Curious minds who love asking 'Why?' and digging into behaviour.
- Pay, with its source
- £30,000 to £65,000+ (Accessibility Specialist to Senior UX/User Researcher, Glassdoor & IT Jobs Watch UK)
- Industries that hire for it
- Healthcare & Life Sciences, Financial Services, Retail & E-commerce, Government & Public Sector, Higher Education
Pay is quoted as the Career Matrix gives it, with its own source and date: use it with that, and not as a promise. See the full Product and Design careers page.
How to run it, questions to ask, and what to watch for
Running it
- Open the map and give each pair a different area of work. Ask them to find the jobs in it and what it suits.
- Pairs report back in one sentence: a job that surprised them, and one thing that job does that is not drawing.
- Look at one area's pay together and click through to its source. Ask what the figure does and does not tell you.
- Point to the full careers page for students who want more.
Questions to ask
- Which of these jobs would you not have known existed?
- Which needs the most writing, and which the most maths?
- Which would you try first, and what would you need to find out?
Watch for
- Students thinking design means drawing. Several areas here do little drawing at all.
- Pay ranges are a guide from the sources shown and vary by employer and place.
- Any area can be reached by more than one route. Nothing here is a ceiling.
Students will be able to: name at least three different jobs in product and design that do not involve drawing. say which area they would want to try first and why. find the pay for a role and the source for it.
Routes in
Two ways in, side by side
Two routes into product and design are worth putting next to each other, and neither comes first on this page. One is a university degree. The other is a degree apprenticeship, which is a job with a degree in it. Product and design is a screen and studio career, so unlike some of the other families there is no hard hat route here to set against the desk, and we have not made one up.
Skills England lists the Digital UX professional apprenticeship, ST0470, at level 6, typically 48 months, and the Creative digital design professional apprenticeship, ST0625, at level 6, typically 36 months. Both are integrated degree apprenticeships. It also lists a Service designer standard, ST0894, at level 6 and 24 months, and a Digital product manager standard, ST0964, at level 4 and 24 months, which is the only one of the four below degree level. The TechSkills Career Matrix maps the first two.
What about degrees? The Design Council's data tables show that 68.1% of the people in its broad list of design occupations held a degree or equivalent in 2025, and 77.4% in its digital design group. That list includes programmers and engineers, and the table gives the highest qualification held, not the route taken, so it cannot tell you how many designers taught themselves or built a portfolio. We found no government source that does, and we would rather say so than guess.
There is a third door at level 3. The T Level in Digital Software Development is a two-year course that lists web designer and user experience designer among the roles students can progress into, and says students can use it to go on to a higher apprenticeship or a degree course. And the Chartered Society of Designers awards Chartered Designer status through a five-stage pathway that any designer may apply for.
Two ways in
The degree route and the apprenticeship route into design side by side, with the same information for each, from the people who set the standards.
20 to 25 minutesA projector or one device per pair.
What this is
The university degree route and the paid degree apprenticeship route into design, in two equal columns, with the same facts for each from the people who set the standards.
What to do
- Read the headings of the two columns before you read the detail.
- In each column find the level, how long it takes, and what the day looks like.
- Open the apprenticeship standard from its link and find the entry requirements.
- Write one question you would still ask before choosing either, and say who you would ask.
What you should notice
Neither route is the better one. They suit different people, both lead to degree level and a route in is not a ceiling: a student can move between them.
Study first
Grad cap: the university degree route
Often suits someone who wants to study design in some depth before they work, or who is not yet sure which area of design they would choose.
T Level in Digital Software Development
Level 3, 2 years
A course that lists web designer and user experience designer among the roles students can progress into, and says students can use it to go on to a related higher apprenticeship or a degree course.
A BA or BSc degree in a design subject
Level 6
The same discipline studied at university. The UX apprenticeship standard, for example, names a BA or BSc Digital User Experience degree at level 6 as the degree its apprentices complete.
Where it can lead: The Chartered Society of Designers says any designer may apply for its five-stage pathway to Chartered Designer status, however they trained. T Level students can also go on to a higher apprenticeship.
Earn and study together
The degree apprenticeship route
Often suits someone who would rather learn the work inside an employer from the start, and who is comfortable with a longer route in exchange for being employed while they study.
Digital user experience (UX) professional (integrated degree)
ST0470, Level 6, typically 48 months
Investigating, analysing and designing the experience people have with digital products and services.
Creative digital design professional (integrated degree)
ST0625, Level 6, typically 36 months
Providing compelling digitally enabled design solutions to internal and external clients.
ST0894, Level 6, typically 24 months
Improving or redesigning services and developing new service propositions to meet the needs of the user as well as the business and other stakeholders.
ST0964, Level 4, typically 24 months
Driving and managing digital products through the complete product lifecycle.
Where it can lead: The standards list typical job titles: UX designer, UX researcher, interaction designer and UI designer for ST0470, digital designer, web designer and creative director for ST0625, and associate product manager, product manager and lead product designer for ST0964.
How to run it, questions to ask, and what to watch for
Running it
- Show the two columns together and read the headings. Ask students to say what each column has in common before you compare them.
- Ask pairs to take one column each and list three questions someone choosing it would want answered. Then check the page for the answers.
- Open the standard for the apprenticeship column and read the entry and length together.
- Close by asking what a student who picked one route and wanted to change would do.
Questions to ask
- What does each route cost a student, and what does it pay them?
- Who is each route likely to suit, and who might it leave out?
- What is missing from both columns?
Watch for
- Treating either column as the better one. They have equal weight and a student who picks one is not locked in.
- Entry requirements change each year and by employer. Send students to the standard, the employer and the course for the current ones.
- Both routes lead to degree level. The page says there is no shorter standard in the Matrix, and that other routes exist.
Students will be able to: compare a degree route and a degree apprenticeship route on level, length and who pays. say what each route tends to suit, as a tendency and not a rule. explain that a route in is not a ceiling and that students can move between routes.
For teachers
The Translator: jargon in plain English
Design and product work has a lot of two-letter words and tool names. Type a word to see what it means, a comparison from school life you can use at once, and where the comparison stops working.
20 terms
A/B test
- In plain English
- Showing two versions of something to different people at the same time and counting which one works better.
- Think of it like this
- Giving half the class one version of a worksheet and half another, and seeing which half finishes more of it.Where that stops working: Two classes differ in many ways. In an A/B test people are split at random, so the only real difference is the version.
- At work
- Product Managers, designers and analysts run them, and need enough people in each group for the result to mean something.
Accessibility
Also called: a11y
- In plain English
- Making something usable by as many people as possible, including people who are blind, deaf, colour blind, dyslexic, have a motor difficulty or are using it in difficult conditions.
- Think of it like this
- A ramp as well as the steps: it was built for wheelchair users and it helps anyone with a trolley, a pram or a sprained ankle.Where that stops working: A ramp is built once. Accessible design is checked every time something changes, and with real users.
- At work
- Accessibility Specialists check it, and every designer and developer builds it in.
Backlog
- In plain English
- The list of things a team could build next, put in the order the team thinks matters most.
- Think of it like this
- Your revision list, with the topics you are worst at at the top, which you change after every mock.Where that stops working: A revision list ends at the exam. A backlog never runs out, because every release shows something new to do.
- At work
- Product Managers and Product Owners look after it, and the team picks from the top.
Card sort
- In plain English
- A method where people put cards, each naming one thing, into groups that make sense to them, so the people building a product can see how its users think.
- Think of it like this
- Giving everyone the same stack of revision cards and seeing which ones each person puts together.Where that stops working: A card sort shows how people group things on cards. It does not show how they search when they are in a hurry.
- At work
- UX Researchers and Content Designers run them to decide how a menu is named and ordered.
Content design
- In plain English
- Working out what words and information people need, and writing them in the order and the plain language that gets them to what they came for.
- Think of it like this
- Rewriting a school notice so that the date and what to bring are in the first line, not the fifth paragraph.Where that stops working: Editing one notice is quick. Content design covers every message in a product, including the error messages people only see when something has gone wrong.
- At work
- Content Designers, UX Writers and Microcopy Specialists do it.
Contrast ratio
- In plain English
- A number from 1 to 21 for how different the lightness of two colours is. Black on white is 21 and the same colour twice is 1. It decides whether text can be read.
- Think of it like this
- Chalk on a blackboard compared with chalk on a grey wall: the same chalk, a very different chance of being read from the back row.Where that stops working: The ratio only measures lightness. It does not account for the font, the size, the screen or the room.
- At work
- Designers check it as they choose colours, and the accessibility guidelines set the lines that text should reach.
Design brief
- In plain English
- A short written statement of what has to be designed, for whom, and what it has to do, agreed before the work starts.
- Think of it like this
- The task sheet for a design and technology project: what to make, who it is for and what it has to do.Where that stops working: A school brief is given to you. At work, working out the real brief is often the hardest part of the job.
- At work
- Product Managers and Heads of Design write or agree them, and designers question them.
Design system
- In plain English
- A shared set of ready-made parts, such as buttons, forms, colours and rules for how they are used, so that every screen in a product looks and behaves the same way.
- Think of it like this
- The school style guide that says which font, logo and colours every letter home must use.Where that stops working: A style guide covers how things look. A design system also holds the working code and the rules for how each part behaves.
- At work
- Design Systems Leads and UI Engineers build and look after them.
Funnel
- In plain English
- The steps people take to get something done, with a count at each step of how many carried on, which shows where people give up.
- Think of it like this
- Everyone who signs up for the school trip, then returns the form, then pays: each step loses someone.Where that stops working: A funnel counts people but cannot say why they left. For that you have to ask or watch.
- At work
- Product Managers and designers read them to decide what to look at first.
Information architecture
- In plain English
- How the content of a product is organised and labelled, so that people can find things where they expect them to be.
- Think of it like this
- How the library is arranged: the shelves, the sections and the signs that tell you where to look for what you want.Where that stops working: A library has one system. A website has several ways in, so the structure has to work from a search result as well as from the home page.
- At work
- Content Designers, UX Researchers and Information Designers plan it, often using card sorts.
Iteration
Also called: iterate
- In plain English
- Making something, trying it, learning from it, and making it better, round after round.
- Think of it like this
- A draft of an essay that you hand in, get comments on and rewrite.Where that stops working: An essay has a deadline and a mark. A product can keep being improved for as long as it exists.
- At work
- Every design and product role works this way.
Microcopy
- In plain English
- The very small words in a product: the text on a button, the hint in a box, the message when something goes wrong.
- Think of it like this
- The labels on the school water fountain: Push and Hold are two words that decide whether you get a drink or a wet sleeve.Where that stops working: Labels in school are read once. In a product, the same few words are read thousands of times, so each one has to earn its place.
- At work
- UX Writers and Microcopy Specialists write it and test it with users.
Product manager
- In plain English
- The person who decides what a product should do next, by weighing what users need, what the business wants and what the team can build in the time.
- Think of it like this
- The student who runs the school magazine and has to choose which stories go in, with a fixed number of pages.Where that stops working: A magazine editor works to a deadline. A product manager works on something that keeps going and has to decide when to stop adding.
- At work
- Product Managers, Product Owners and Associate PMs do the work, with designers and developers.
Prototype
- In plain English
- A rough, early version of something, made to test an idea cheaply. It can be paper, a clickable set of screens or a model, and it is made to be thrown away.
- Think of it like this
- A rough plan for a school play that you walk through on the stage with scripts in hand before anyone makes the costumes.Where that stops working: A prototype looks like the real thing only up to a point. The bits that do not yet work are exactly the bits you have to ask people to imagine.
- At work
- Product Designers and UI Designers make them, in tools such as Figma or on paper, and test them before developers build anything.
Service design
- In plain English
- Designing the whole of a service from the person's side, including the parts that are not on a screen, such as the letter, the phone call and the person at the desk.
- Think of it like this
- Planning the whole of a school open evening: the invitation, the parking, the signs, the tour and the follow-up email, not only the stalls.Where that stops working: An open evening happens once a year. A service has to work every day, for people who are stressed, rushed or doing it for the first time.
- At work
- Service Designers and Strategic Designers work on it, and the Matrix lists it under Service and Experience.
UI
Also called: user interface
- In plain English
- The things you see and touch to use something: buttons, menus, text, icons, colours and the layout of the screen.
- Think of it like this
- The controls on the classroom projector: the buttons on the remote, the menu on the screen and the labels on them.Where that stops working: A good looking interface can still be a bad experience. Looking right and working right are different jobs.
- At work
- UI Designers and Product Designers draw and build it, usually in a design tool and then with developers.
Usability test
- In plain English
- Watching real people try to do real tasks with something while you stay quiet, to see where they get stuck.
- Think of it like this
- Handing a new student the school map and watching how they find the science block, without telling them where to go.Where that stops working: A test shows where people struggle. It does not always tell you why, so you ask afterwards.
- At work
- UX Researchers and designers run them, in a lab, a meeting room or over a video call.
User research
- In plain English
- Finding out about the people who will use something, by asking them, watching them or looking at what they do, before and after it is built.
- Think of it like this
- Asking the people in your year what they would actually use before you spend the school council's money on a new vending machine.Where that stops working: A survey of your friends is a start. Real research tries to include people who are not like the person doing it.
- At work
- UX Researchers plan and run it. Product Managers and designers use what it finds.
UX
Also called: user experience
- In plain English
- How it feels to use something from start to finish: whether you can find what you want, whether it does what you expect, and whether you would put up with it again.
- Think of it like this
- The experience of getting a lunch at school: the queue, the menu, the payment and the seat, not only the food.Where that stops working: A lunch is one thing in one place. A product's experience also covers things nobody sees, such as what happens when it goes wrong.
- At work
- UX Researchers and Interaction Designers study and shape it, and a Service Designer looks at the whole of it, online and off.
Wireframe
- In plain English
- A plain drawing of a screen that shows where things go and what they do, with no colour or style, so everyone argues about the layout and not the look.
- Think of it like this
- The floor plan of a house, which shows where the rooms and doors are before anyone chooses the paint.Where that stops working: A floor plan is finished once drawn. A wireframe is expected to change several times.
- At work
- Designers draw them early in a project to agree what the screen has to do.
For teachers
The Curriculum Translator
Which parts of the curriculum in England each activity supports, using only the Department for Education's own words and the plans it has published. We say plainly where the curriculum is thin on this subject, and what the government has said it will change.
Show the curriculum links for
| Where it comes from | What the curriculum says | Activities that support it |
|---|---|---|
| Design and technology, national curriculum, secondary | “use research and exploration, such as the study of different cultures, to identify and understand user needs”National curriculum in England: design and technology programmes of study | Notice the design, Watch someone try, Sort the cards |
| Design and technology, national curriculum, secondary | “use a variety of approaches [for example, biomimicry and user-centred design] to generate creative ideas and avoid stereotypical responses”National curriculum in England: design and technology programmes of study | Notice the design, Prototype on paper |
| Design and technology, national curriculum, primary and secondary | “engage in an iterative process of designing and making”National curriculum in England: design and technology programmes of study | Prototype on paper, How many testers?, Watch someone try |
| Design and technology, national curriculum, secondary | “develop and communicate design ideas using annotated sketches, detailed plans, 3-D and mathematical modelling, oral and digital presentations”National curriculum in England: design and technology programmes of study | Prototype on paper |
| Design and technology, national curriculum, secondary | “test, evaluate and refine their ideas and products against a specification, taking into account the views of intended users and other interested groups”National curriculum in England: design and technology programmes of study | Watch someone try, Prototype on paper, How many testers? |
| GCSE design and technology, DfE subject content | “identify and understand client and user needs through the collection of primary and secondary data”GCSE design and technology: subject content | Watch someone try, Sort the cards, Where do people give up?, Notice the design |
| GCSE design and technology, DfE subject content | “iterative design processes of exploring, creating and evaluating”GCSE design and technology: subject content | Prototype on paper, How many testers?, Watch someone try |
| GCSE design and technology, DfE subject content | “use different design strategies, such as collaboration, user-centred design and systems thinking, to generate initial ideas and avoid design fixation”GCSE design and technology: subject content | Notice the design, Prototype on paper, Sort the cards |
| Computing, national curriculum, secondary | “create, reuse, revise and repurpose digital artefacts for a given audience, with attention to trustworthiness, design and usability”National curriculum in England: computing programmes of study | Hit the target, Can you read it?, Where do people give up? |
| Mathematics, national curriculum, later secondary | “infer properties of populations or distributions from a sample, whilst knowing the limitations of sampling”National curriculum in England: mathematics programmes of study | How many testers?, Is B really better? |
| GCSE art and design, DfE subject content | “use visual language to communicate personal ideas, meanings and responses”GCSE art and design: subject content | Prototype on paper, Can you read it? |
| Curriculum for Wales, Science and Technology | “Being part of a user-centred design process will encourage them to use creativity to develop ideas, manage and mitigate risks, and minimise complexities.”Science and Technology: statements of what matters | Prototype on paper, Watch someone try |
| Curriculum for Excellence, Technologies, TCH 4-09a | “I can apply design thinking skills when designing and manufacturing models/products which satisfy the user or client.”Technologies: experiences and outcomes | Prototype on paper, Watch someone try |
| Curriculum and Assessment Review, 2025 (a recommendation, not a decision) | “understanding the design process and developing iterative design skills should remain fundamental”Curriculum and Assessment Review final report: Building a world-class curriculum for all | Prototype on paper, How many testers?, Watch someone try |
| Planned, first teaching from 2028 | “We will revise the design and technology curriculum and GCSE subject content to focus on developing pupils' design capability and introduce the concept of sustainability within the programme of study.”Curriculum and Assessment Review: government response | Prototype on paper, Notice the design |
Be aware of the limits
- User needs, iterative design and testing with users are all in design and technology, which is where most of the links above sit. The secondary computing programme of study mentions meeting the needs of known users, and design and usability, once, in its first part. The programme for the later secondary years has three bullet points and does not mention user interfaces, usability, accessibility or user needs, and the current GCSE computer science content has no lines on user needs, usability or accessibility either.
- The word accessibility does not appear in the computing programme of study. The accessibility activities in this pack, such as the contrast checker, are supported by the design and technology wording on user needs and, from the review, inclusive design, and not by an accessibility statement in the computing curriculum.
- A base 2 logarithm is not taught before AS and A level maths. The click game works out the log for students and shows it as a number of bits, so nobody has to calculate one. The sampling statement above is in the later secondary maths programme of study for all students.
- The two rows from Wales and Scotland are one line each, to show that design thinking is in those curricula too. We have not mapped them in detail, and Northern Ireland is not covered.
- The last two rows are a recommendation and a plan, not a curriculum. The independent review in November 2025 recommended that the design process stay fundamental and that inclusive design be taught. The government's response says it will revise the design and technology curriculum, publish a revised national curriculum in 2027 for first teaching in 2028, update GCSEs for first teaching from 2029 onwards, and replace the computer science GCSE with a GCSE in computing. A March 2026 policy paper says a consultation will take place later in 2026. We found no sign on GOV.UK that it has opened or that draft programmes of study exist.
- We read the Department for Education's own documents, not any exam board's specification, so the GCSE rows are the DfE subject content that every board's course must follow. Check your own board's current specification, and for England the version your school currently follows.
Straight answers
Questions students, parents and colleagues ask
Do you need a degree to work in product and design?
It depends on the job, and the honest answer is that the evidence is partial. The Design Council's data tables show 68.1% of people in its broad list of design occupations held a degree or equivalent in 2025, and 77.4% in its digital design group. That list includes programmers and engineers, and the table cannot show whether someone taught themselves or built a portfolio.
The government's apprenticeship standards for UX and creative digital design are integrated degrees at level 6, ST0470 typically 48 months and ST0625 typically 36 months, and the Service designer standard, ST0894, is also level 6. The Digital product manager standard, ST0964, is level 4 and typically 24 months. A student can also start at level 3 with the T Level in Digital Software Development, which lists UX designer among the roles it can lead to.
Do students have to be good at drawing to work in design?
No. The government's capability framework groups eight roles under user-centred design, including user researcher, content designer, service designer and accessibility specialist, and puts product manager in a separate group of product and delivery roles. A user researcher plans and carries out research with users, and a content designer makes things easier for people to understand and use, and neither is a drawing job.
The TechSkills Career Matrix lists eight areas of product and design work, and several of them, such as user research, product management and content design, do little or no drawing at all.
Do students need to be good at maths or coding?
Not to start. The sums in this pack are percentages, ratios and charts. The one logarithm, in the click game, is worked out by the page, and the national curriculum does not teach logarithms until AS and A level. Some of the work does lean on numbers: a team reading a funnel or an A/B test needs to be able to tell a real difference from luck, and the secondary maths programme of study asks students to infer from a sample while knowing the limits of sampling.
The UX apprenticeship, ST0470, requires English and maths to be completed under the funding rules, which is a reason to keep both going.
Is there a shortage of designers, so that it is a safe career?
We cannot say that, and we would rather not. A government survey of creative employers found graphic design skills hard to get for 22.5% of those with an IT-skills vacancy against 6.4% of all businesses, but it also found creative employers less likely than all businesses to report a skill-shortage vacancy overall, 7.2% against 9.8%. The 2026 Jobs Plan projects around 800,000 digital and technology roles to fill by 2035, but that covers the whole field. We found no government source saying UX or product design in particular is short of people.
What we can say is that design work exists in a lot of industries: the Design Council says around 80% of designers now work in industries other than the design industries.
What is the difference between UX and UI?
UI is the things you see and touch: buttons, menus, text and colours. UX is how the whole thing feels to use from start to finish, including whether you can find what you want and what happens when something goes wrong. A good looking interface can still be a bad experience, and the reverse. The Translator on this page has both terms, with a comparison from school life.
Is it true that five testers is enough?
It is a rule of thumb with a clear origin and some honest limits. Jakob Nielsen says that he and Tom Landauer showed that a typical single test user finds about 31% of the problems and that five users find about 85%, and that after the fifth you mostly see the same things again. He also says the model only holds for comparable users, that products with several very different user groups need more testing, and that for quantitative studies you need at least 20 users.
A 2003 study by Laura Faulkner tested 60 users and drew random sets from them: some sets of five found 99% of the problems and others only 55%. That is one study of one piece of software, but it is a good reason to treat five as a starting point and to test again after each change.
If a design passes the contrast checker, is it accessible?
No. Contrast is one of many things a design has to get right. The WCAG 2.2 rules ask for a contrast ratio of at least 4.5 to 1 for text and 3 to 1 for large text, and at least 3 to 1 for parts of controls and graphics that you need to see, but a pair that passes can still be hard to read in the wrong font, size or light. WebAIM, which counts accessibility failures every year, warns that automatic tools miss things and that a page with no detected errors is not necessarily accessible.
The government's Service Manual asks teams to test with disabled and older users as well as with automated tools, because tools alone miss problems.
How many people are colour blind?
Colour Blind Awareness, a charity, says approximately 1 in 12 men and 1 in 200 women. The page gives no study behind the figure, so treat it as a good estimate and not a measurement. The practical lesson is the same whatever the exact number: never use colour as the only way to tell two things apart.
Does the law say a school's website has to be accessible?
In England, Wales and Scotland the Equality Act 2010 applies the duty to make reasonable adjustments to the responsible body of a school. The 2018 public sector accessibility regulations cover the websites and mobile apps of schools and nurseries only partly, for content about essential online administrative functions, and government guidance says that exempt and partly exempt bodies still have the Equality Act duty. This is general information, not legal advice, and a school's web team or its legal adviser is the right person to ask.
Is design a good fit for a student who likes making things with their hands?
It can be, though it is worth being straight about what the TechSkills Career Matrix says. It treats product and design as screen and studio work and has no hard hat route for this family, unlike networks or cyber security. Hands-on skill shows up in making prototypes, from paper sketches up, and in watching people use things out in the world, which are the activities in this pack that start away from a screen.
The Matrix also lists service and experience design, which looks at the whole of a service including the parts that are not on a screen, and the Service designer apprenticeship, ST0894, is described by Skills England as improving or redesigning services to meet the needs of the user as well as the business.
What about AI? Will it do the design?
We do not know, and neither does anyone who tells you with confidence. What we can say is what is written down. The Career Matrix lists emerging design as one of its eight areas, including roles for AI experiences and voice interfaces. The government's response to the curriculum review says it will rebalance computing towards digital literacy including AI literacy. Neither says what any particular job will look like in ten years.
Coming from employers
From the industry
Resources shared by employers
The first employer resources are on their way. If you work for an employer with a TechSkills portal account, you can share a resource from your portal and it will appear here once it has been reviewed.
Articles and stories
Policy & Research
What It Takes to Scale the Responsible Adoption of Agentic AI
Drawing on a four-part 2026 workshop series, techUK sets out what it actually takes to move agentic AI beyond pilots - covering technical readiness, organisational ownership, workforce AI literacy and governance - alongside what it wants from government.
Industry Insights
Welcome to techUK's 2026 Tech & Innovation Focus Week
techUK's 2026 Tech & Innovation Focus Week brought together member organisations across robotics, agentic AI, photonics, quantum and tech convergence, alongside a new photonics report and upcoming events including November's Tech and Innovation Summit.
Industry Insights
Event Round-Up: Future Careers in Emerging Tech
A round-up of techUK's Future Careers in Emerging Tech event, where panellists made the case that routes into AI, quantum, cybersecurity and semiconductors run through far more than traditional STEM degrees - and that soft skills matter just as much as technical ones.
People & Stories
Rethinking Pathways Into Tech
UBDS Digital's Katja Fischer argues that the most common route into a tech career, a computer science degree, is no longer the only credible one, drawing on her own move from a Psychology and Business Management degree into a Business Analyst role.
University & Provider Spotlights
Contribute to Our TechTogether 2026 Campaign
techUK's month-long March diversity and inclusion campaign is built around four themes, from career pathways to equity by design, and is open to member contributions in blog, interview or short video form.
University & Provider Spotlights
Innovative New UX Course Achieves Tech Industry Gold Accreditation
It is also the first Digital UX Degree Apprenticeship to gain Tech Industry Gold, the kitemark endorsed by TechSkills that denotes education and training relevant to digital and tech careers.
Over the coming months this is where employers will add their own articles, videos, lesson ideas and day-in-the-life stories for teachers, from design and product teams. Nothing appears here until the TechSkills team has read it and published it, and every piece names the organisation that shared it.
Where to next
Careers guides for Product and Design
Every area of work in Product and Design, the routes in, pay and hiring, and the skills employers ask for, with sources and dates, are in our Product and Design guides. There is one for teachers and one for careers advisers.
Show your working
Sources and how we checked them
Each source below was opened and read on 4 November 2026, and every figure on this page is the one the source gives, with the condition the source puts on it. Where a source warns about its own figures, as the Design Council, the digital sector statisticians and WebAIM all do, we pass the warning on. If you spot something that has changed, tell us and we will fix it.
- Product and Design Career MatrixTechSkills. Maintained by TechSkills, apprenticeship standards last checked 4 November 2026.Used for: The eight areas of product and design work, the jobs in them, pay with its own source, and the two apprenticeship standards the Matrix maps.
- Digital user experience (UX) professional (integrated degree), ST0470Skills England. Page updated 16 February 2022; approved for delivery 3 February 2020.Used for: The level, length, funding band, degree requirement and job titles of the UX apprenticeship.
- Creative digital design professional (integrated degree), ST0625Skills England. Page updated 4 February 2022; approved for delivery 3 February 2020.Used for: The level, length, funding band and job titles of the creative digital design apprenticeship.
- Service designer, ST0894Skills England. Page updated 28 March 2023; approved for delivery 23 March 2023.Used for: The level, length, funding band and purpose of the service designer apprenticeship.
- Digital product manager, ST0964Skills England. Version 2.0, page updated 8 September 2026; version 2.0 starts on 1 September 2026.Used for: The level, length, funding band, purpose and version change of the digital product manager apprenticeship.
- Government Digital and Data Profession Capability FrameworkGovernment Digital and Data Profession, GOV.UK. Published 23 March 2017, last updated 30 September 2026.Used for: The name of the framework and which roles it groups under user-centred design and under product and delivery.
- Content designer (role page)Government Digital and Data Profession Capability Framework. Last updated 28 August 2026.Used for: What the framework says a content designer does.
- Interaction designer (role page)Government Digital and Data Profession Capability Framework. Last updated 28 August 2026.Used for: What the framework says an interaction designer does.
- Service designer (role page)Government Digital and Data Profession Capability Framework. Last updated 29 May 2026.Used for: What the framework says a service designer does.
- User researcher (role page)Government Digital and Data Profession Capability Framework. Last updated 29 August 2025.Used for: What the framework says a user researcher does.
- Product manager (role page)Government Digital and Data Profession Capability Framework. Last updated 28 February 2025.Used for: What the framework says a product manager does.
- Service StandardGovernment Digital Service, GOV.UK Service Manual. Individual points last updated between 30 May 2022 and 29 January 2026.Used for: That the standard has 14 points and what the first few are.
- Service Standard point 1: Understand users and their needsGovernment Digital Service, GOV.UK Service Manual. Published 8 May 2019, last updated 30 May 2022.Used for: What the first point of the Service Standard asks teams to do.
- Service Standard point 6: Have a multidisciplinary teamGovernment Digital Service, GOV.UK Service Manual. Last updated 29 January 2026.Used for: What the sixth point of the Service Standard asks teams to do.
- Design Economy 2026, key findingsDesign Council. Design Economy 2026, released 7 September 2026.Used for: The value of the UK design economy and how many people it employs.
- Design overtakes retail sector as biggest contributor to the UK economy (press release)Design Council. Embargoed to 7 September 2026.Used for: The share of UK employment in design occupations and how many designers work outside the design industries.
- Design Economy 2026: frequently asked questionsDesign Council. Published with Design Economy 2026, September 2026.Used for: How the Design Council counts design occupations, and its own warning about inflation.
- Data tables for Design Economy 2026BOP Consulting for the Design Council. Design Economy 2026, file last modified 3 September 2026.Used for: The list of occupations counted as design occupations and the share of them with a degree.
- The Double DiamondDesign Council. Page undated; copyright 2026.Used for: What the Double Diamond is.
- History of the Double DiamondDesign Council. Page undated; copyright 2026.Used for: When the Double Diamond began and the four phases it names.
- Economic Estimates: Employment in the Digital Sector, January 2025 to December 2025Department for Science, Innovation and Technology and Department for Culture, Media and Sport. Published 1 October 2026.Used for: How many people work in the UK digital sector, and the statisticians' own warning about the figure.
- Digital and Technologies Jobs PlanDepartment for Culture, Media and Sport. Published 21 October 2026.Used for: The number of digital and technology roles the government projects will need filling.
- Digital Software Development (T Level)T Levels, Department for Education. Page undated.Used for: What the T Level is and that it lists UX and web designer as roles students can go on to.
- Chartered DesignerChartered Society of Designers. Page undated.Used for: What Chartered Designer status is and how it is earned.
- Chartered Society of DesignersChartered Society of Designers. Page undated.Used for: That the Society holds a Royal Charter and keeps the Register of Chartered Designers.
- Skills gaps and shortages in the creative industries: employer perceptions and actions, UK, 2022Department for Culture, Media and Sport. Published 11 February 2025.Used for: Which design skills creative employers found hard to get, and how that compares with all businesses.
- WCAG 2 OverviewW3C Web Accessibility Initiative. Updated 17 September 2026.Used for: Which version of the accessibility guidelines is current.
- Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2W3C. Recommendation of 12 December 2024 (republished with errata; first published 5 October 2023).Used for: The contrast, non-text contrast and target size rules, and the definitions of contrast ratio and relative luminance that the contrast checker uses.
- The WebAIM Million: 2026 report on the accessibility of the top 1,000,000 home pagesWebAIM, Utah State University. Last updated 30 March 2026; results from February 2026.Used for: How many home pages have detectable accessibility failures, how common low contrast text is, and the limits of automatic checking.
- Equality Act 2010, section 20: duty to make adjustmentslegislation.gov.uk, The National Archives. Revised version, up to date to 4 November 2026.Used for: What the duty to make reasonable adjustments requires.
- Equality Act 2010, section 85: pupils, admission and treatmentlegislation.gov.uk, The National Archives. Revised version, up to date to 4 November 2026.Used for: That the duty to make reasonable adjustments applies to schools.
- The Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018, regulations 3 and 4legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives. In force 23 September 2018; revised version, no known outstanding changes.Used for: Which public sector websites and apps the regulations cover, and the partial exemption for schools.
- Understanding accessibility requirements for public sector bodiesGovernment Digital Service and Central Digital and Data Office, GOV.UK. Published 9 May 2018, last updated 30 September 2024.Used for: The accessibility standard government guidance asks public sector sites to meet, and what it says about schools.
- About colour blindnessColour Blind Awareness. Page undated; site copyright 2026.Used for: How common colour vision deficiency is.
- Family Resources Survey: financial year 2024 to 2025Department for Work and Pensions. Published 26 March 2026.Used for: How many people in the UK report a disability.
- Family Resources Survey: background information and methodology, 2024 to 2025Department for Work and Pensions. Published 26 March 2026.Used for: How the survey defines disability.
- Use clear language (Writing to GOV.UK standards)Government Digital Service. Page undated.Used for: How many adults in England have very poor literacy, and why government writes in plain language.
- Testing for accessibilityGovernment Digital Service, GOV.UK Service Manual. Published 6 March 2019, last updated 29 October 2024.Used for: That government services are tested with disabled and older users as well as with automated tools.
- Making your service accessible: an introductionGovernment Digital Service, GOV.UK Service Manual. Published 9 March 2016, last updated 17 December 2025.Used for: That teams are expected to include disabled people in their research.
- Fitts's Law and Its Applications in UXNielsen Norman Group. 31 July 2022, modified 24 January 2024.Used for: Why bigger and closer targets are faster to hit, and the citation of Fitts's 1954 paper.
- Fitts' law, chapter 17 of the Handbook of Human-Computer InteractionI. Scott MacKenzie, York University, in the Handbook of Human-Computer Interaction (Wiley, 2018). 2018.Used for: The formula for the index of difficulty that the click game uses.
- Why You Only Need to Test with 5 UsersNielsen Norman Group (Jakob Nielsen). 18 March 2000, modified 2 February 2024.Used for: The 31% and 85% figures behind the rule of five and Nielsen's own cautions.
- How Many Test Users in a Usability Study?Nielsen Norman Group (Jakob Nielsen). 3 June 2012, modified 31 January 2024.Used for: How many testers other kinds of study need.
- Beyond the five-user assumption: benefits of increased sample sizes in usability testing (abstract)Behavior Research Methods, Instruments, and Computers, held by the US National Library of Medicine. August 2003.Used for: A study that tested the rule of five and found it could miss many problems.
- Framework for InnovationDesign Council. Page undated.Used for: What the later Framework for Innovation added to the Double Diamond.
- A/B testing: comparative studiesOffice for Health Improvement and Disparities, GOV.UK. Published 30 January 2020, last updated 3 September 2020.Used for: What an A/B test is and that it needs many users.
- Analyse your data: evaluating digital health productsOffice for Health Improvement and Disparities, GOV.UK. Published 30 January 2020.Used for: That results from a sample are estimates and that confidence depends on sample size.
- Card Sorting: Uncover Users' Mental Models for Better Information ArchitectureNielsen Norman Group. 2 February 2024, modified 6 June 2024.Used for: What a card sort is and what it is for.
- Making prototypesGovernment Digital Service, GOV.UK Service Manual. First published 18 October 2016.Used for: Why teams make prototypes before building, from a pen and paper sketch up.
- TfL Corporate Archives Research Guide 24: Harry BeckTransport for London. Guide footer dated 16 October 2024.Used for: What Harry Beck changed in the Tube diagram, how it was tested, and what he was paid.
- Harry Beck's Tube mapTransport for London. Page undated.Used for: When the Tube map design appeared and what it was based on.
- Map (Beck, Harry), object O1361001Victoria and Albert Museum. Record created 7 July 2016.Used for: That the map ignored geographical accuracy to make connections clear.
- Jock Kinneir and Margaret CalvertDesign Museum. Page undated.Used for: How the road sign system was designed for reading at speed, and how it was tested.
- Know Your Traffic SignsDepartment for Transport. Official edition, Crown copyright 2023.Used for: When the committees behind the motorway and all-purpose road signs began.
- Report of the Committee on Traffic Signs for All-Purpose Roads 1963 (file MT 103/275)The National Archives. Covering dates 1963 to 1965.Used for: The title and year of the Worboys report.
- Typography, GOV.UK brand guidelinesGovernment Digital Service. Page undated.Used for: That the GOV.UK typeface is based on the road sign typeface.
- Report and Recommendations: Hawaii Emergency Management Agency, January 13, 2018 False AlertFederal Communications Commission, Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau. Report dated April 2018; released 10 April 2018.Used for: What the screens looked like, what the confirmation said, and what the regulator found.
- National curriculum in England: computing programmes of studyDepartment for Education. Published 11 September 2013.Used for: What the statutory computing curriculum says about users and usability.
- GCSE subject content for computer scienceDepartment for Education. Published 26 January 2015, this version updated 31 March 2025.Used for: That the current GCSE content has nothing on usability, user needs or accessibility.
- National curriculum in England: mathematics programmes of studyDepartment for Education. Updated 28 September 2021.Used for: What the secondary maths curriculum says about samples and about exponential functions.
- AS and A level maths subject contentDepartment for Education. Published 18 December 2014, last updated 4 April 2016.Used for: Where logarithms first appear in the curriculum.
- Curriculum and Assessment Review final report: Building a world-class curriculum for allDepartment for Education (independent review chaired by Professor Becky Francis). Published 5 November 2025.Used for: What the independent review recommended for design and technology and for computing.
- Curriculum and Assessment Review: government responseDepartment for Education. Published 5 November 2025.Used for: What the government said it will do about design and technology, computing and art and design.
- A Safe, Informed Digital NationDepartment for Science, Innovation and Technology, DCMS and Department for Education. Published 16 March 2026.Used for: The government's timetable for the curriculum consultation and the new curriculum.
- National curriculum in England: design and technology programmes of studyDepartment for Education. Published 11 September 2013.Used for: What the statutory design and technology curriculum says about users, iteration, sketching and evaluation.
- GCSE design and technology: subject contentDepartment for Education. November 2015, for teaching from 2017.Used for: What every GCSE design and technology course must cover.
- GCSE art and design: subject contentDepartment for Education. January 2015.Used for: What GCSE art and design says about communicating ideas.
- Science and Technology: statements of what mattersWelsh Government, Hwb. Last updated 28 January 2020.Used for: What Curriculum for Wales says about design thinking.
- Technologies: experiences and outcomesEducation Scotland. Undated PDF.Used for: What Curriculum for Excellence says about design thinking.
This page is general information to help with teaching. It is not legal, safety or careers advice, and for England the curriculum links should be checked against the version your school currently follows.