Contents

Overview

'User needs' are needs that users have of a service. They express people’s goals, values, and aspirations.

You must meet your user needs for your user to be able to achieve something.

Learn how to research your users and their needs.

Documenting and communicating what you learn about your users and their needs makes sure:

  • your team has a shared understanding 
  • you have something you can refer back to when needed
  • other teams can benefit and use your findings to inform their work too

User needs can represent one or more users, and do not include any personal details. 

They usually start at a high level, are broad in scope, and remain relatively consistent over time. 

You can continue to validate and include more detail as you learn more from your users.

Documenting user needs

You can document your understanding of your user and their needs in different ways, including: 

User needs should be: 

  • based on evidence from user research, not assumptions
  • focussed on the user’s problems rather than possible solutions
  • documented or written in the user’s language

Your user’s language includes words, phrases, and concepts they’re familiar with.

Writing user and job stories

You can document and communicate your understanding of your users in many ways, but user stories and job stories are a common format. 

You can use them to prioritise and manage work, track tasks and activities, and assess whether you’re meeting user needs. 

When writing job and user stories, use the language of your users and focus on what matters most to them. 

User stories

A user story looks like this:

As a… [user]

I want/need/expect to… [action]

So that I can… [goal]

For example,

As a… student living in Wales

I need to… know how much discount I get for my council tax

So that I can… plan my finances

Job stories

The focus of job stories is less on the user and more on the task they’re trying to do. 

A job story looks like this:

When I… [situation]

I want/need/expect to… [action]

So that I can… [goal]

For example:

When I… am calculating my council tax

I need to… know what discounts I am eligible for

So that I can… plan my finances ahead
 

Sharing your user needs

Find ways to share these with people connected to your service so they understand your users and what they need from your service. For example, other researchers, service teams, or stakeholders.

This means they can:

  • ask questions 
  • spot gaps 
  • give feedback on what you’re doing 
  • challenge your assumptions 
  • and eventually, improve your service

Make sure to protect your participant’s data and privacy, and meet GDPR and policies in your organisation.