Principles of user research

These principles are statements that can:

• serve as a compass for your team
• frame and inform research decisions
• support consistency in making decisions across your organisation

You must always advocate for your users, represent them faithfully and protect their wellbeing – as well as the wellbeing of the researchers.

Always consider the ethical and safety implications of your research. Especially if you:

• explore new methods or approaches
• involve vulnerable people or emotionally sensitive topics

Only trained and experienced user researchers with the right support should do sensitive and complex research.

You should:

• consider the impact on participants, team members and yourself
• plan how to mitigate risks and stresses to protect all involved
• recognise potential biases that may influence your research, and how to prevent them
• get informed consent from participants
• manage participant data responsibly

Always work to established research standards and guidelines. For example, 

• Department for Education (UK)’s research standards and guidelines
• data protection standards and policies, including UK GDPR
• other standards, guidelines and policies within your organisation

Learn how to understand your users and their needs.

Try to involve all types of users and aim for diverse and realistic representation from the beginning. This means including:

• disabled people 
• under-represented groups and communities
• users of assistive technology
• those with different access needs
• those with different digital and technical skills
• Welsh-language users
• those whose first language is not Welsh or English

You may also need to include the people providing the service or helping others access it.

Learn about identifying who to research with.

Always be recruiting, and be proactive in reaching participants where they are. For example, you may need to engage with different networks and use various recruitment channels. 

Learn about recruiting participants for your research.

Consider how you may exclude any users when:

• planning your research
• recruiting participants
• choosing locations

You may need to adapt your approach and methods to their needs and preferences to prevent excluding users. For example:

• adjusting your communication style or channel
• adapt how you run your session
• modifying research materials
• providing additional support during sessions

Consider how you can give back to the people and communities you research with. For example, you could reward participants for their time, but also keep them informed about the impact they have. 

You could incentivise people from diverse backgrounds to take part in research by rewarding them for their time, energy and expertise. It’s common to reward participants with vouchers, but consider: 

• the ethics of using incentives
• how they may influence your research and findings
• how to avoid making your research too transactional 

Good user research helps you understand the underlying reasons and motivations behind user behaviour.

When planning your research:

• be clear about what you need to learn, your goals and scope
• focus on understanding the problem first
• prioritise objective observations of user actions over opinions
• focus on what users need, not what they say they want or prefer
• recognise any personal assumptions, preferences and biases

When doing research:

• pay attention to what participants do and how they feel
• focus on how they interact with services in real-life situations
• observe them performing tasks rather than asking about them
• consider ideas for solutions as something to test and validate

This helps you:

• make decisions based on real user needs and behaviours
• identify pain points and areas for improvement
• uncover opportunities to better meet user needs

When interviewing users, consider:

• factors that may influence preferences, such as social norms, personal biases, and context
• focusing on real experiences instead of hypothetical situations
• that users may not always be aware of their actual behaviours or deeper challenges

As a bilingual nation, all public services in Wales must be delivered equally in both Welsh and English to meet the Welsh language standards.

Consider the Welsh language in your research from the beginning. This means you should:

• avoid making assumptions about the Welsh language and its users
• not leave translation until the end of the process
• test your service or product with Welsh-language users
• design your service bilingually and involve translators early and often

Including the Welsh language in your project as early as possible will prevent problems that take more time and resources to fix in future. 

Learn about researching with Welsh-language users.

Share your findings to benefit others and avoid duplicating existing research.

While user researchers are responsible for the final outputs and insights of research, effective user research is a collaborative effort that involves the entire team.

The most effective user research considers the:

• strategic direction and mission of your team’s work
• relevant policy
• contribution it can make to your area’s goals 

Work closely with other people and involve the rest of your team in your research. This will help them:

• see and listen to real users interact with your service
• understand the barriers and challenges they experience
• learn about the language, words and terminology they use
• build empathy for your users, and think and talk about them as real people with real needs
• work with policies and challenge them when needed

To involve your team, you can:

• seek guidance and input
• ask for feedback on your process and work
• invite them to observe and take notes in interviews or usability testing
• ask for their help in analysis sessions to agree on findings and actions

Work closely with other team members so you can advocate for users and make sure decisions are based on user needs. For example, ask designers to involve you in working with them on prototypes. 

User research can take time and resources, so it must have a clear user need and public benefit, and avoid duplicating existing research. 

Ongoing research throughout the lifecycle of your service or product is more effective than larger studies at the beginning and end.

Even a small amount of research can help you:

• learn quickly what works for your users
• help identify service issues, and the best way to solve them
• test new design ideas, content and features
• save time by only building what your users need
• continue meeting user needs as they change, and new ones emerge
• improve your service regularly

This can:

• inform better decisions
• reduce uncertainty and mitigate risks
• encourage a culture of learning 
• facilitate incremental progress
• adjust your plans early

There’s no perfect research, but some research is always better than none.

Be practical and pragmatic in your approach: start small and build momentum, capacity and insight over time within your team and organisation. 

Consider:

• setting clear research goals and scope
• the right methodology for your needs and context
• defining what you need to be able to move to the next development phase
• moving quickly onto the next area or topic if you’re saturated with information
• how to be mindful of and open about the research limitations

Learn about understanding your users and their needs.

User research is a team sport, both within your organisation and with other organisations across the public sector. 

It takes time, work and resources, so it should not duplicate existing work, and have a clear user need and public benefit. 

Find ways to open up and share your work and findings with internal and external stakeholders, including show and tells. 

Opening up and sharing your research with others in the public sector means that you:

• advocate for user research, users and their needs
• promote a better understanding of user needs
• prevent others from duplicating research
• reduce the risk of bias and unchallenged assumptions

Always remember to:

• protect participant’s privacy
• remove any sensitive or personal data
• consider if it’s right to share information and if you need permission
• consider how you share information about service failings, as they may reflect on others' work and reputation