Christian Adams at Imperial College London took part in our online manual focus group in January to test our new members’ tool. We spoke with him afterwards to get his views.
What’s your history with the print version of the manual?
"I’ve been using the print manual for a long time but over the last few years my usage of it has waned a bit. We tend to meet and discuss in the office and refer when needed.
"As things change so quickly I’ve been more likely to refer to latest UKCISA news rather than the manual itself."
Did you have any worries when you found out we were moving it online?
"When I found out it was going online my main concern was how it would function. How easy would it be to use?
"Taking part in the focus group was great; it allowed me to see how it would look and work. The fact that it’s divided into those three key sections of immigration, fees and student support is really helpful. Really easy to find the section you want.
"It was nice to get a preview, we tested lots of real life scenarios which was great and the added features of saving certain pages and recent searches are really helpful. The fact that the manual has links to the relevant resources on things like gov.uk will save time as well."
Do you think you’ll use it more than the current print version?
"Definitely – as with most advisers, I have multiple tabs open at any one time, with websites like gov.uk open. I’m expecting the new UKCISA manual to be one of them!
"I think being able to access it on the go by phone or tablet is great as well. Means it’s really accessible for external meetings. The print manual was getting very cumbersome, getting bigger and bigger (and heavier) with each edition!"
If you're a member of UKCISA you can log in to your manual at manual.ukcisa.org.uk.
We’re very grateful to the 30 members that were involved and helped us with creating and developing the manual over the past 10 months. We’re very keen to get further feedback to continue to develop it so please do share your thoughts by emailing jane@ukcisa.org.uk or in the comment box below.