John was Head of user research at the Government Digital Service, and Head of the user research community across government.
His work was to improve user research practices across government, and build the growing community of user researchers in departments and agencies.
He also edited this blog.
Listening to the language people use in an organisation is an important way to understand the organisation's culture. In this post we consider the difference between thinking and talking about IT systems, and thinking and talking about government services.
We’ve learned that user researchers do their best work when they focus on one thing at a time. In this post I explain how this is the foundation for making user research a team sport, and of putting the people who use our services at the heart of what we do.
Being resilient isn’t about toughing it out, or suppressing or ignoring your emotions. It’s about taking care of ourselves.
When GDS moved to our new offices, we needed to rebuild our user research lab. We started with the needs of the people who use the lab.
We look at how GDS defines usability and why we think effectiveness is more important than efficiency or satisfaction.
We’ve published new guides to the most common user research methods. And we’re trying out a new discussion group to help the community contribute to the guidance and keep it up to date with our evolving practice.
An important part of my job is supporting user researchers across government. This year GDS will be introducing: new guidance and resources, a new job family and an improved assurance process.
We’re re-opening our search for a Head of User Research at GDS. This is a fantastic opportunity to build the government’s user research capability, and help make government services work well for all the people who need and use them.
This is a fantastic opportunity to build the government’s user research capability, and help make government services work well for all the people who need and use them.
The topic for our cross government meetup in June was Good Discovery. We had a great turn out and 5 fantastic talks.