Discovery phase user research at the Home Office
The discovery phase is about exploring the problems you want to solve. During this phase you’ll work with your agile team to:
- form hypotheses and look at possible research and design approaches
- understand potential benefits and related key performance indicators (KPIs)
Review what information the team has
Start with desk research to:
- review existing research in the user research repository
- read lists of user needs, user groups and any transcripts
- understand the policy
- read any academic literature
- look at census data
Good things to make in the beginning are a:
- draft definition of your target population, including demographics and geographical information
- participant recruitment plan
- research plan with enough detail to book research space, organise home visits and recruit participants (including people with access needs and low digital skill or confidence)
- stakeholder map – make this with your team
Involve your team
User research is a team sport. This is especially true at the discovery phase, when it’s useful for the whole team to be involved. It can embed user needs in everyone’s work and help you get to even more people.
You and your team can:
- have a kick off workshop to map out user groups missing from the repository and gather team research questions
- hold regular show and tells to feed back findings
- hold an end of discovery show and tell for wider stakeholders
You can make:
- initial research questions and discussion guides
- a user map or matrix with primary, secondary and tertiary users
- photos of the team taking part in research activities to use in presentations and show and tells
Do contextual qualitative research
During discovery, go to where your users are and observe them in the context of your project. Do interviews to explore and understand the problem.
Aim for 6 to 8 users from each user group and a minimum of 24 people in a 6 week discovery. You can use interviews, observation and ethnography with these primary users.
Use visual ethnography – record everything using videos, photos and notes, and gather physical artefacts if you can.
Do not rely on quantitative research, such as surveys and questionnaires, especially on their own.
Good things to make as part of this type of research are:
- case studies of real people and their situations
- anonymised transcripts of all interviews
- anonymised clips of important moments and anonymised photos of users in context
- summaries of the research so far and the techniques you’ve used
Videos and transcripts are the most accessible ways to record interviews, and photos and diagrams are good for people who find text difficult. You can use Sketch, ScreenFlow or similar software to anonymise images. Find out more in the MRS Code of Conduct or from the User Research Ethics Lead, email them at ethics@digital.homeoffice.gov.uk.
Participatory design and research
Good things to make with your design team are:
- a journey or experience map – include pain points, emotions and touch points across government
- a service map, annotated with agencies, technologies and data involved at each stage
- posters with user needs to display around the team space – include quotes or pictures that back up the need
- a Wardley value chain map – this also needs input from your business analyst and technical lead
Inclusion and access needs
Talk to the Assisted Digital and Access Needs teams in the first week – don’t wait. Email them at access@digital.homeoffice.gov.uk.
Over-sample users with access needs and low levels of digital skill and confidence. Use the digital inclusion plotter to chart where your participants are in terms of inclusion and access needs.
Good things to make are:
- specific user needs for users with access needs and low digital skill or confidence
- a list of the assistive technology that will need supporting
- insight on the first point of contact for those will low digital skill or confidence
- scenarios and journeys for each of the access need categories including autism, visual impairment and ADHD
The end of discovery: analyse findings collaboratively
At the end of your discovery, work as a team to:
- use affinity mapping or diagrams to find themes in research
- analyse transcripts to uncover common themes
- write user needs
- develop hypotheses to test in alpha
Good things to make so you’re ready for the next phase are:
- a draft high level plan for alpha, that includes people with access needs and low digital skill and confidence
- future research questions
- desired outcomes and the ways you’ll measure them (KPIs)
Related content
You may find the following useful: