User Research
What It Is
User research is the process of understanding who your users are, what they need and how they experience your services. In a government context, that means going beyond surveys and assumptions – it means spending time with real people, in real situations, to uncover what is actually happening and why. The insights that come from rigorous research do not just inform design decisions. They reduce risk, build internal consensus and give teams the evidence they need to justify investment and drive meaningful change.
When You Need It
You may need user research if you are:
Starting a discovery and need to understand the problem before designing a solution
Making policy or service decisions that will affect a large number of people
Redesigning an existing service that is not working as well as it should
Trying to understand why users are dropping off, struggling or not completing a journey
Preparing for a GDS assessment and need evidence of user-centred design
How We Work
We use a range of research methods depending on what stage you are at and what questions need answering. These include:
Contextual interviewsspeaking with users in their own environment to understand real behaviours and needs
Usability testingobserving users interact with prototypes or live services to identify friction and failure points
Diary studiescapturing user experiences over time, particularly useful for services with infrequent or complex journeys
Participatory designinvolving users directly in the design process to generate ideas grounded in lived experience
Affinity mapping and synthesismaking sense of qualitative data to surface patterns, themes and actionable insights
What You Get
Depending on the scope of the engagement, our research delivers:
A research plan outlining objectives, methods, participant criteria and timeline
Recruited and screened research participants
Facilitated research sessions with full notes and recordings where permitted
A synthesis of findings presented as themes, patterns and insights
User needs, pain points and opportunity areas clearly documented
Recommendations tied directly to design, policy or service decisions
An insight deck suitable for sharing with senior stakeholders
We Successfully Carried Out User Research for
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