Empowering digital inclusion

Creating a vision and roadmap to drive digital inclusion amongst excluded groups.

The challenge

It is without debate that far too many people are excluded from digital financial systems, platforms and services. The question is what to do as a positive next step and intervention? The team at Barclays recognised the centrality of finance to the everyday lives of the mass of the population. There can be very few people not reliant, to some extent, on the financial systems that surround us all. The feeling amongst the Barclays team was that they, as a leading player in financial services, should be at the forefront of driving change. The challenge (and opportunity) was to understand the current situation and then find ways to create a Barclays point of view – one that could be used to drive wider societal change across the world of digital access and engagement.

The approach

Comprehensive landscaping, via desk research, was an essential component of the approach taken. The aim of the landscaping was to explore and understand the situational context of digital inclusion/exclusion. Meetings were held with a range of sector, industry and experts in the field. We conducted a full review of the knowns, including a full literature audit, and a deep-dive of previous related work we had conducted for Barclays. Extensive online and offline ethnographic research was conducted with key audiences (these had been identified in the landscaping and review stages). Depth interviews with those excluded helped deepen our understanding and provided much needed human context – digital exclusion has very real consequences for people, and these needed to be made manifest through the process.

The solution

We developed a full roadmap and strategy for improving digital engagement, based on the ethos of ‘informed choice’ Roundtables were held with a variety of consumer groups, charitable organisations and leaders from the main financial services providers. The aim was to share and embed the results of the initiative. A report was created and published, and it is now being used as the leading resource on the subject by policy makers and sector peers. The findings were presented to a wide audience of dignitaries and changemakers in the House of Lords, inspiring a co-ordinated national effort to improve the UK’s digital life.