When we set up the User Research in Wales community in April 2023, we really didn’t know whether the community would get off the ground, but on 12 December last year, the community came together for our third face-to-face event. We’ve also held nearly 20 virtual community sessions now which feels like an amazing achievement.
Our previous two face-to-face events had been about learning user research methods and conducting research with Welsh speakers. This time, the day was all about sharing our research work and networking. This was in response to our members telling us that they really wanted to understand what other research is going on across Welsh public sector and where there might be opportunities to learn from each other and collaborate.
During the day, we asked our members to share some details of their recent and current research projects and to reflect on their successes, challenges and learnings. We captured this information and plastered it on the walls so that everyone could see the range of work that is going on.
It was impressive to see the range and depth of research work that is going on across our community, which ranged from MOT and council tax service improvement to developing services to support those with eating disorders. It was clear that I wasn’t the only person there who was a little surprised at the amount of great research going on.
We gathered in smaller groups to talk about some of the challenges and barriers we’ve faced on these projects. Some themes began to emerge from these conversations which became the subject for more in-depth group discussions.
These themes included:
- challenges conducting more sensitive research
- barriers to conducting Welsh language research
- barriers caused by organisations and senior colleagues not respecting the value of user research
Reflecting on these themes as the wider group, we discussed what we can do as a community to help overcome some of these challenges and barriers. We now plan to use these themes as topics for future community discussions and to work together as a community of action to develop some resources that can support researchers who face any of these challenges; like we did with our Welsh language research considerations.
It was so nice to watch our community members connect throughout the day. Some people just chatted and connected, and some linked up with people who have been or are working on very similar research projects to seek peer support. Whilst this was really encouraging to see, it also highlighted a need for our work to be promoted and shared in a clear and visible way as most of our peers across the sector are unaware of all the brilliant work that goes on and where opportunities exist to share knowledge and experience.
We wanted to ensure that people got value out of the event, so we closed by asking members what they had learned, what connections they had made and what they planned to do next with their knowledge from the day. We had lots of varied and encouraging responses to these questions which helped us to understand the value that the event and connecting as a community held for our members.
The day was capped off with 11 of us heading to a nearby pub to talk more and get closer as peers and as a community.
