Civic tech userneeds

Leisa ReicheltHead of User Research, Government Digital Service

GDS

hello.

GDS@leisa

Our aim is to make services so good, people prefer to use them through a radical focus on user needs not govt needs

GDS@leisa

everyone is talking about user needs.

GDS@leisa

https://www.gov.uk/designprinciples

GDS@leisa

GDSLeisa

but what exactly is a user need?

‘You Keep Using That Word. I Do Not Think It Means What You Think It Means’ - Inigo Montoya, The Princess Bride

Well understood and clearly stated user needs are the bedrock of service design

Evolving our understanding of user needs.

GDS@leisa

user needs are stable the jobs people need to do when they have to interact with government don’t change much over time.

how we meet those needs is less stable.

policy, services, technology.

user needs come from the lived experience of real people.

they are not customised to a project or a department

And so these men of Hindustan disputed loud and long, Each in his own opinion, exceeding stiff and strong,

Though each was partly in the right And all were in the wrong.

"We have to remember that what we observe is not nature in itself, but nature exposed to our method of questioning." - Werner Heisenberg

Discovery: what’s the user need?

contextual research: what do people do now?

HomesGDSGDSLeisa Reichelt

Pop up researchGDSGDSLeisa Reichelt

Markets

LibrariesGDSGDSLeisa Reichelt

RemoteGDSGDSLeisa Reichelt

LaboratoryGDSGDSLeisa Reichelt

Use Indi Young’s Mental Models research methodology and visual output to standardise maps of user needs & organisational responses.

GDS@leisa

words matter

‘As a PAYE taxpayer I want to understand how to calculate my tax code so that I can make sure I’m on the right tax code’

GDS@leisa

‘As a PAYE taxpayer I want to make sure I’m on the right tax code so that I pay the right amount of tax’

GDS@leisa

‘As a PAYE taxpayer I want to make sure paying the right amount of tax so I have the most money to live on.’

GDSLeisa Reichelt

GDS

GDS

GDS

Plan (and budget) to do user research.

User needs are not a ‘nice to have’

To really waste time and money all you need to do is build a service nobody wants and nobody can use - John Waterworth

thank you.

@leisa