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Understanding users and their needs

The better you understand your users, the more likely you are to design and build a service that works well for them.

When you include all types of users in your research, you build a service that’s barrier-free for everyone. It’s best to start wide and begin your research with a diverse group of users before narrowing down.  

Decide who to include in research  

Brainstorm the different groups of people you need to include in your research by using information from: 

• existing research and analytics  
• subject experts and front-line staff 
• service data and general population statistics 
• user personas.  

Consider how many participants you need  

The research methods you use will determine the number of participants you need. For example, you’ll need: 

• 4 to 8 participants per round of user research 
• more than 250 participants for benchmarking.  

Define your research criteria  

Depending on your research objectives, your criteria might be: 

• a particular demographic, for example, women under 30 years of age 
• a specific user group, for example, small business owners or job centre staff 
• specific life events, for example, users who have recently moved home or are looking for a job 
• specific access needs, for example, people who use assistive technology 
• a specific level of digital skill, for example, users who have basic online skills. 

Understand your target groups  

When you've defined the overall criteria, decide which groups you’ll include in each round of research. Consider groups who:

• regularly use the service 
• may need the service in future 
• have problems using the service 
• work in the service, for example, call centre staff 
• help others use the service, for example, caseworkers, legal professionals or charity workers. 

Ask subject experts for information about target groups. They may know about groups that you haven’t included. They may also help you get in touch with people who need extra support to take part in your research.

Review your participant criteria to make sure they are relevant to your research questions. Do a gap analysis to make sure you don’t miss important groups.  

Encourage diversity  

To build a good service, you need to include users with diverse abilities and different access needs. Recruit participants that reflect the population and choose accessible research locations.

Be careful not to exclude anyone in the way you do research.  

Find access barriers 

Regular users of your service will show you what business-as-usual looks like. You’ll see why and how they’re using each of the products in the service.  

While it’s useful to include your regular users, don’t forget the users who have trouble accessing the service or can’t access it at all. This will help you explore pain points or obstacles that push users out entirely.

For example, they may find the service too difficult to navigate or they may be unable to access the service using assistive technology.  

It’s also useful to learn the workarounds used to access your service. For example, you may find that several users require a website translator to read the content in their preferred language. 

Include all digital skill levels  

You should research with people who have a mix of digital skills. It is important to speak with people who have a low level of digital literacy to understand their support needs. For example, some users may not be able to leave their homes, may not have a computer or may live in an area with poor internet.  

Getting support for user research

The better you understand your users, the more likely you are to design and build a service that works for them.

User research is most effective when it's funded from Discovery and continues for the life of the service. 

It’s especially important to talk to real users at the start of the process. This helps you understand your users and build empathy.   

User research is everyone’s job 

The user experience is everyone in the team’s responsibility. Participation in user research helps your team develop empathy for the users and understand their contribution to improving the user experience. This will help them make decisions and use evidence to communicate the benefit of change.  

They will learn:  

• what real users need 
• how real people experience the service 
• the language people use when talking about the service 
• how users perceive technology 
• how users overcome issues with the service. 

Team members who observe research should take part in analysis sessions to help agree on the findings and any resulting actions. User researchers should also work closely with the rest of the team on design decisions and prototypes.

How to get buy-in for user research 

Even if you understand the value of user research you may need to convince others. Getting support to stand up a proper multidisciplinary team with a full-time user researcher can be hard. 

Create a pitch

Research underpins the whole service design and delivery process. To start work on a new service, or improve an existing one, you may need to explain the value of user research. By doing user research we reduce risks and increase the certainty of success. 

Work out the cost of the need 

Design decisions must be based on user need. Existing research can provide evidence for a new or improved service. Use this to draft problem statements. 

Quantitative sources like website analytics can help you discover the need for building or improving a service. They can also help you work out a cost to government for not improving a service.

There are resources you can use to calculate the return on investment and prove the value of a good user experience. 

Get support  

You can ask champions and digital subject experts in your agency to help you. You can find champions by talking to other teams who follow the service design and delivery process. They may help you gain support from influential leaders in your agency.  

You can use case studies to show how user research can improve service outcomes. 

Planning user research across design and delivery

As you move through the service design and delivery process, the research you do will change. Learn more about user research in each stage.

The needs and goals of the users define the service. You will uncover these needs and goals through your research in the Discovery stage and build on them throughout the service design and delivery process. 

In all stages you will: 

• do research with a broad range of users, including those with access needs and low digital skills 
• think about the whole user experience, digital and offline, not just the product you are delivering.

In Discovery, you will do generative research, making sure you are designing the right thing. Later, you will do evaluative research to make sure you're designing it in the right way.

User research in Discovery 

Before you start designing, learn about your users. Watch how users do things now and what problems or barriers they face. This is called contextual qualitative research. It will help you to understand how the service you’re designing can meet user needs. 

Interview users 

Interview and observe frontline service staff, if your agency has them.

This will help you understand: 

• limitations of the current service 
• how staff explain and resolve issues
• undocumented workarounds that people use to get things done. 

Map the user journey 

Create a user journey map to understand the user experience completing a task.

Don’t rely on assumptions the business has made. It’s important to do your own research to understand the user journey. 

Examine existing data 

To avoid bias, do your own primary research before looking at the research that exists. Existing research might include analytics, internal workflows and support logs. This can reveal issues and provide measurable evidence to support user behaviour.  

Find user research participants

There are several ways to find research participants. We’ll take you through some of the steps you can use to find and recruit real users.  

To understand and improve your service, you need to know what current and future users need.

While it can be useful to speak with subject experts and people who understand how your service functions, these discussions shouldn't replace or be prioritised before user research.  

Include the right people

Remember to include all user groups in your research. Including people who:  

• come from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds 
• have different needs or who require assistive technology  
• have a disability or chronic illness  
• have different levels of digital skills  
• need help to use your service 
• will use your service in future.  

Finding participants 

Recruitment can be a lot of work. It’s good idea to consider resourcing and budget for this process. Recruitment agencies are experienced and are generally able to recruit participants at a reasonable rate. This can be good value for money.  

To find participants:

• use a research recruitment agency 
• work with a professional body, specialist charity or community group 
• work with specialist sections of other agencies, for example Multicultural Services in Services Australia 
• invite existing users of your service to take part.  

You can consider small pay incentives and reimbursements to encourage users to participate.

Interview users

Interviews help you learn more about users, how they use a service and what they need from it.

Interviews are an important research method throughout the entire service design and delivery process. Use interviews when you want to:

• learn how your service fits into the users’ life and when they need the service 
• get a deeper understanding of the user pain points and problems 
• explore the user perspective.

Who to include in the interview  

The interview team  

A note taker should be present for each session, you may also choose to include an optional observer.

To stay safe, make sure you have one other person in the room with you apart from the participant. 

Consent forms for user research

How to ensure your users are comfortable and feel safe sharing their experiences.

A consent form helps users understand how the government will use the information they share. It also gives them confidence they will have control over their information.

Get informed consent before you research 

Make sure you have informed consent before you begin the research session. Explain to the participant what the research is about and what it will involve.

You usually ask the user to complete and sign a consent form to confirm their permission and document their preferences for how we can save and share their information, including video and audio recordings.

Crafting a consent form 

Every user research session is different. Think about all the information you may need to capture during the research. Adjust the consent form to reflect this.

For example, the participant may be sharing artefacts that contain their address and details of disability.

The most important information you need in a consent form is:

• who is conducting the research, including the researcher, team and agency 
• why you are conducting the research 
• what you will be recording, this should be the participant's choice 
• what you will do with the information and recording 
• how long the information will be stored for 
• how the participant can withdraw their consent, include a contact phone number or email address 
• a place for the participant to sign and date.

Paying incentives for user research

It’s normal to pay people for their time when they help with research, but sometimes it isn’t appropriate.

Paying incentives to participants is acceptable in some types of research. You should think about the situation and consider ethical guidelines when deciding if payment or reimbursement is appropriate.  If you do decide to pay incentives, factor them into your research proposal and budget.

Incentives and reimbursements 

Reimbursements are made to cover participant costs, such as travel expenses or equipment.

Incentives are rewards that motivate people to take part in research, for example a gift card for completing a survey.  

Confirm the incentive is appropriate  

Before offering an incentive, confirm if the payment is appropriate. This will depend on the user research your doing and the participant's situation. For example, a payment may not be appropriate if it:

• represents a conflict of interest
• may become a form of indirect coercion for participants who are vulnerable or disadvantaged. 

To help you make a decision, check if your agency has a policy on paying incentives and read the National Statement on Ethical Conduct in Human Research.

Your responsibility  

You have a responsibility for participants both during and after your research session.

Think about these questions to help you decide if it is appropriate to pay an incentive:

• would the participant get involved without the incentive 
• will an incentive influence the results 
• does the participant have a relationship to your organisation 
• is there a power relationship, for example the participant is a supplier or public servant 
• does the incentive take account of the participant’s socioeconomic situation 
• could it be seen as coercion if they are from a disadvantaged or vulnerable background 
• is the incentive appropriate to the participant’s cultural background.

Analysing user research

How to understand your user research and use insights to build a service that works well for the people who use it

User research activities produce a lot of raw data. Filtering and organising this data will help you to produce meaningful insights. For example, you may have:

• written and digital notes 
• sketches and photos 
• audio and video recordings.

Who to involve 

We recommend inviting everyone on your team to the research analysis.

When everyone has a chance to be part of the decision, you reduce the risk of researcher bias and limit the individual influence of team members or stakeholders. At a minimum, invite anyone who observed the user research.

When to analyse 

You should aim to do analysis as soon as you can after each round of research, while it is still fresh in people’s minds. For every hour of research, aim to spend up to 1 to 2 hours analysing findings.

Extract observations 

To extract observations, ask the group to review research notes or recordings. From there, the group should:

• use a single sticky note to write each observation  
• provide details of exactly what is said or seen, his should be an unbiased representation of the user, not what they think it means.  

Understanding diversity

When you create content, be mindful that users have diverse needs and abilities.

Be inclusive

As government services move onto digital platforms, we need to make sure they work for everyone. There are many diverse user groups in our population. Many have limited access to digital services or are excluded from them.