The User Research in Government blog has been running for over 5 years now. It kicked off with an article by former GDS luminary Leisa Reichart listing five ways to help user research work better in agile (definitely worth a read if you haven’t seen it before). And while, in the blog’s early days, many of the posts were very GDS-centric, it has since branched out to draw attention to the great user research going on across government. Here are a few examples:
- How HMRC got a whole team involved in planning user research
- Learning about internal users at HS2
- Researching in context at the Home Office
We want to keep this momentum going, to ensure this blog serves the whole user researcher community, as well as all those who are simply curious about what user researchers in government do (it’s not all doodling on post-it notes, promise).
So, if you’re a user researcher in government (or work closely with user researchers) and have an idea for a blog post, whether it focuses on a particular method, a challenge you’ve faced in your research, a shining example of research that’s gone really well, or something else entirely (perhaps not your grandmother’s exquisite carrot cake recipe), we’d be delighted to hear from you.
If you’re not sure about an idea, no matter. Get in touch with us anyway and we’ll be more than happy to discuss whether there’s a potential blog post in the making, and if so we’ll help get your blog post spruced up for publication.
And while we’re here, I’ll end with some curated links to a selection of the blog’s most popular and enduring posts, from recent gems to older posts that remain as insightful today as they were when first published:
- How to use data in user research when you have no web analytics
- What we learned doing user research with people who have access needs
- Anatomy of a good sticky note
- Don't jump: My tips for interpreting user research
Have you got an idea for a user research-related blog post? Let us know in the comments.
8 comments
Comment by jessica gough posted on
hey I can share about the work we've been doing on apprenticeships on reviewing and consolidating our user needs, 5 years on from our first discovery. Or how we have developed our UR community?
Comment by James Lubwama, Senior user researcher - GDS posted on
Hi Jessica, sounds great. Your work developing a UR community would make for a really interesting post. I'll be in touch via email.
Comment by Matt Leech posted on
Hi, I work with NHS Health Education England and have been running User Research for a number of products we are helping to build out for the NHS. I work as the UX/UI Designer on these projects but also take up the role of UR running workshops across the country with Trainee Doctors, Administrators, and many other user groups. I think this may make a good blog be it the challenges we face with having access to the Doctors and their schedules, building our User Personas, and the many many edge cases we find, working on sites and having the facilities we need, remote testing of product prototypes and essentially managing expectations.
Comment by James Lubwama, Senior user researcher - GDS posted on
Hi Matt, lots of interesting blog material there. I'll email you to discuss in more detail.
Comment by Darren Kistnasamy posted on
Hi James - I have a story from some testing I carried out with a member of the public recently. This helped to change their view of local government, and how online services could help them. I'd be happy to share a blog post about this if of interest.
Comment by James Lubwama, Senior user researcher - GDS posted on
Hi Darren, that sounds great. I'll be in touch to discuss.
Comment by Will Turner posted on
Hi James, I recently read Steve Portigal's "Interviewing Users" and it's prompted some reflections on interview techniques that I'd be happy to write up. Nothing fixed to a particular case or example.
I'm working as a User Researcher at NHS Digital and was previously a journalist. I've spent quite a bit of time thinking about interviewing.
Comment by James Lubwama, Senior user researcher - GDS posted on
Hi Will, sounds great. I'll be in touch.