In a recent User Research in Wales community meeting, we discussed the barriers that researchers and designers in Wales face when it comes to carrying out user research with Welsh speakers. 

By the end of that meeting, it was clear that some of the barriers mentioned were more perceived than factual, and some community members left that meeting with a renewed enthusiasm and commitment to try to carry out more user research with Welsh speakers.  

We thought we would share some of these perceived barriers with you and show how they might not be such a barrier after all. We hope that this will encourage you to consider how you might be able to do more to engage with Welsh speaking service users to ensure that public services in Wales are meeting their needs too. 

You have to speak Welsh fluently to be able to carry out research with Welsh speakers. 

Not true. Obviously, this is an advantage, but there are always ways and means to research meaningfully with Welsh speakers, even if you are not fluent yourself. 

Depending on your Welsh language ability, there are different ways of conducting research that will work for you and the participant. This might be with the support of a translator, using ‘Wenglish’, etc... 

In the user research team at CDPS, we have a saying – “Some research is better than no research.” 

Welsh speakers have high expectations of the language and will be offended if a researcher’s Welsh isn’t up to scratch. 

Not true. The vast majority of Welsh speaking participants will appreciate any effort you make to meet their language needs and are happy to contribute to meaningful research, even if you can’t offer a ‘perfect’ Welsh language experience. 

As long as you manage their expectations in advance, you’ll find most participants are open to compromise. 

It’s impossible to recruit Welsh speaking participants for research. 

Not true. Whilst it can be difficult when you don’t have access to Welsh language networks, networks do exist. You can try to reaching out to: 

Just translating the English into Welsh is fine, isn’t it? 

Not true. Welsh translations often lack context, can be written in very formal or academic language and may include some regional dialect, particularly when English content is translated at a later date.  

Trio writing is a technique that’s recently been developed where Welsh language content is developed in parallel with English content and results in better content in both languages. 

Welsh language service users vary a lot – and so do their needs. HMRC developed a set of user personas which illustrate this really well. 

The Welsh language is treated as more important than the English language in Wales. 

Not true. The Welsh language standards require Welsh organisations to ensure the Welsh language is not treated any less favourably than the English language in Wales. 

You can read more about the Welsh public sector’s commitment to the Welsh language in the Welsh language standards and the Digital Service Standards for Wales. 

The Welsh language is often an afterthought in the service design process. 

True. But let's do what we can to change this.