1. GDS@leisa
Leisa Reichelt
Head of User Research
Government Digital Service
@leisa

2. hello.
GDS@leisa

3. Our aim is to make services
so good, people prefer to
use them over the
alternatives
GDS@leisa

4. GOV.UK

5. Transformation

6. Identity

7. Today:
1. what is user research?
2. user research for discovery, an
activity: making the right thing
3. usability: making things the right
way.
4. Q&A
GDS@leisa GDS@leisa

8. What is user
research?

9. Identify user needs
not evident from
analytics.
GDS@leisa

10. Understand context
(framing, mental models,
emotions, relation to other
tasks/issues, policy issues,
relation to whole of service)
GDS@leisa

11. Evaluate and iterate
design solutions
GDS@leisa

12. We do this mostly by
observing and talking
to people
GDS@leisa

13. Homes

14. Work

15. Libraries

16. Remote

17. Laboratory

18. Other things we do
Ethnography
Card sorting
Personas
Remote usability
Surveys
Diary studies
Data analysis
Tree testing
A/B Testing
Customer -
Journey Mapping
Listening in
Click Testing
Accessibility Testing
GDS@leisa

19. Closing the distance
between the people who
make the decisions and
the people who are
affected by those
decisions.
GDS@leisa

20. Our aim is to make services
so good, people prefer to
use them over the
alternatives
GDS@leisa

21. Making the
right thing
Understanding user needs

22. Discovery:
what are the
user needs?

23. Policies have users
and should
understand user
needs to be most
effective.

24. GDS@leisa

25. https://www.gov.uk/designprinciples
GDS@leisa

26. GDS@leisa

27. GDS@leisa

28. What are people
doing now to solve
this problem?

29. Contextual Research
plus:
Market research
Web analytics
Call centre data etc.
GDS@leisa

30. @leisa
Talk to people who
will be affected by
your policy / service.

31. Activity
Discover the user needs for
Civil Servants around
professional development

32. How are people*
solving this
problem now?
*that’s you!

33. Conduct ‘depth’
interviews (5 mins)
Your experience of professional
development in the civil service incl.
objectives, reviews, training …

34. the rules of
sticky notes.
- one idea per sticky
- just the data, no analysis
- code participants
(initials)
- write so others can read

35. the rules of
interviewing.
- open questions
- listen!
- don’t lead the participant
(care re: your assumptions)

36. analysis.
what did we
learn?
Group similar
observations
together

37. Extract:
- User Needs
- Touchpoints
- Other key insights

38. @leisa
Get the words right
to describe
user needs

39. ‘as a ..... I want to ......
so that I can .............’
GDS@leisa

40. ‘As a PAYE taxpayer I want to
understand how to calculate
my tax code so that I can
make sure I’m on the right tax
code’
GDS@leisa

41. ‘As a PAYE taxpayer I want to
make sure I’m on the right tax
code so that I pay the right
amount of tax’
GDS@leisa

42. ‘As a PAYE taxpayer I want
to make sure paying the
right amount of tax so I
have the most money as I
can have to live on.’
GDS@leisa

43. analysis.
what did we
learn?
Extract:
- User Needs
- Touchpoints
- Other key insights
Make a map

44. Making things
the right way
Usability

45. @leisa
What might we do to
help improve that
experience?

46. GDSLeisa

47. Build:
HTML prototypes,
designing in the browser
GDS@leisa

48. Measure: qualitative and
quantitative research

49. Learn: rigorous analysis
tracked and searchable in
our research catalogue.

50. this is what
real people do.

53. @leisa
learning about
policies through
implementing them
(and testing)

54. GDS

55. ‘do user research
in every sprint’
5 people in a lab for one on one interview
+ usability

56. ‘get your exposure
hours: 2hrs / 6wks’

57. ‘have a researcher
embedded in the team
at least 3 days a week’

58. GDS@leisa

59. Leisa Reichelt
Head of User Research
Government Digital Service
@leisa
GDS@leisa