{"id":1479,"date":"2014-09-09T14:59:23","date_gmt":"2014-09-09T14:59:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/?p=1479"},"modified":"2017-07-20T09:23:43","modified_gmt":"2017-07-20T09:23:43","slug":"five-principles-generating-usable-user-research","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/2014\/09\/09\/five-principles-generating-usable-user-research\/","title":{"rendered":"Five principles for generating usable user research"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is a post by Cat Macaulay, our User Research Lead and is part of our series on Standards & Guidelines<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

Building a user research practice into a large and complex project like mygov.scot<\/span><\/a> is a pretty daunting task. So as we start out on this journey, we wanted to try and give ourselves some principles to guide us along the way. They are there to keep us focussed on the idea that, just as user research is meant to help create usable products and services, user research itself actually needs to be usable (or actionable) as well.<\/span><\/p>\n

1. Research with project teams, not for them<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

It is\u00a0easy to make huge assumptions about the people who will use our products and services, because it is hard to walk in someone else\u2019s shoes. This is what user researchers are trained to be sensitive to and what user research methods are designed to deal with.<\/span><\/p>\n

But it is equally easy for user researchers to assume they know the\u00a0kinds of research that project teams need to move their work forward. It\u2019s only by working side by side with the rest of the project team that we can be sure\u00a0we are addressing relevant user research needs. As the user research team at GDS<\/span><\/a> says \u2013 user research is a team sport<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

2. Research with users, as opposed to carrying out research on users<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

We have a branding problem \u2013 the term user research sets up an image of people under a microscope, having their ideas and experiences recorded and then taken away to be put to some mysterious use. Even the term \u2018user\u2019 immediately reduces the people who use our website to \u2018website users\u2019 and not whole people.<\/span><\/p>\n

Working with users, not just as people to be researched, but as active partners in helping us understand what we need to know, opens doors to issues and problems we cannot anticipate because our own life history and experience has not encountered them.<\/span><\/p>\n

3. Usability testing should be (as) light, fast and frequent (as possible)<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Usability testing is a great way of asking ourselves whether\u00a0our product\/service\/website is fit for purpose. Can people use it to achieve core tasks, meet core needs? It\u2019s how we can find the bugs in the design, improve ease of use and make sure we have produced something that can be used by the full diversity of people that might wish or need to use it.<\/span><\/p>\n

Testing as often and\u00a0as quickly as we can, with the minimum number of people we need, clears bugs and major design flaws out of the way quickly.<\/span><\/p>\n

4. Research practices and contexts,\u00a0as well as\u00a0use<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

When we use a website to do our supermarket shopping we don\u2019t think of ourselves as \u2018people using a website\u2019, but as \u2018people doing the shopping\u2019 (at least until the website behaves strangely). But if you are building a website for online supermarket shopping, it\u2019s pretty easy to believe\u00a0that people think of themselves at that moment as \u2018online supermarket website users\u2019.<\/span><\/p>\n

This mismatch in how we think about what is happening can lead to all sorts of difficult design challenges. Supermarkets know that people do lots of things while they are \u2018shopping\u2019. They chat on the phone, they bump into friends, they wander aimlessly over to a shelf for a look, they worry about things that happened at work that day. They know that the weather will change the kinds of foods people will want. They know that in times of austerity, people will be very bargain conscious.<\/span><\/p>\n

Supermarkets are designed to accommodate how people actually shop. They put new products in clearly marked areas away from places where people might be very focused on \u2018everyday item\u2019 gathering. They have cafes and seating areas. They strategically place comfort items, like chocolate bars, in areas where you are likely to be standing for a while mulling over your day\/life\/woes.<\/span><\/p>\n

Digital designers need to be aware of all this too. If user research only concerns itself with people actually using digital services, it cannot help designers anticipate how the context of use, or the bigger picture of a user\u2019s life, will affect them. That\u2019s why user research should concern itself with understanding those bigger picture issues.<\/span><\/p>\n

Studying how people actually use a design or service helps us understand how well it meets their immediate task needs and expectations, how they feel about it, and whether they trust it. But it doesn\u2019t tell us if it fits into that bigger picture. Which is why UX testing is important but not the whole story when it comes to user research.<\/span><\/p>\n

5. Research needs to be visible and shared quickly<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

User researchers tend to be curious people, fascinated by other people and their lives. It can be very easy to get lost in research. User researchers are also trained to think much more deeply about how we understand things, about what forms of data, reasoning and analysis are credible and reliable, than most of us typically do. That can make user researchers a bit shy of letting go of their data and findings.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the fast-paced world of agile website development, holding on to data and findings creates blockages in progress that can knock on, in unforeseen ways, to other areas of work. For those of us in the user research world this is a big focus of thinking<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

There\u2019s another good reason to make\u00a0data and early thinking available quickly \u2013 developers, designers, product owners and users themselves will help us see things in our data and findings.<\/span><\/p>\n

Making data visible and sharable helps us generate wider and deeper conversations about that data.\u00a0We\u2019re trying to make user research more usable and these five principles are where it all begins.<\/span><\/p>\n

We\u2019ll be sharing updates on this, and much more on social, so follow the team via <\/i>@mygovscot<\/i><\/span><\/a>\u00a0 on Twitter for more updates. Want to\u00a0comment? Let us know below!<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is a post by Cat Macaulay, our User Research Lead and is part of our series on Standards & Guidelines Building a user research practice into a large and complex project like mygov.scot is a pretty daunting task. So as we start out on this journey, we wanted to try and give ourselves some…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":224,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,10],"tags":[68,73,37],"class_list":["post-1479","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-digital-public-services","category-mygov-scot","tag-design-and-user-experience","tag-standards-guidelines","tag-user-research"],"yoast_head":"\nFive principles for generating usable user research - Digital<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/2014\/09\/09\/five-principles-generating-usable-user-research\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Five principles for generating usable user research - Digital\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This is a post by Cat Macaulay, our User Research Lead and is part of our series on Standards & Guidelines Building a user research practice into a large and complex project like mygov.scot is a pretty daunting task. So as we start out on this journey, we wanted to try and give ourselves some...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/2014\/09\/09\/five-principles-generating-usable-user-research\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Digital\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-09-09T14:59:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-07-20T09:23:43+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jono Ellis\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jono Ellis\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/2014\/09\/09\/five-principles-generating-usable-user-research\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/2014\/09\/09\/five-principles-generating-usable-user-research\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Jono Ellis\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/#\/schema\/person\/ee4d9f144db1f0c55b7d4f1118dfeeb6\"},\"headline\":\"Five principles for generating usable user research\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-09-09T14:59:23+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-07-20T09:23:43+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/2014\/09\/09\/five-principles-generating-usable-user-research\/\"},\"wordCount\":1006,\"commentCount\":0,\"keywords\":[\"Design and User Experience\",\"Standards & Guidelines\",\"user research\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Digital Public Services\",\"mygov.scot\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/2014\/09\/09\/five-principles-generating-usable-user-research\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/2014\/09\/09\/five-principles-generating-usable-user-research\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/2014\/09\/09\/five-principles-generating-usable-user-research\/\",\"name\":\"Five principles for generating usable user research - Digital\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2014-09-09T14:59:23+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-07-20T09:23:43+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/#\/schema\/person\/ee4d9f144db1f0c55b7d4f1118dfeeb6\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/2014\/09\/09\/five-principles-generating-usable-user-research\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/2014\/09\/09\/five-principles-generating-usable-user-research\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/2014\/09\/09\/five-principles-generating-usable-user-research\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Five principles for generating usable user research\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/\",\"name\":\"Digital\",\"description\":\"Updates from the Scottish Government's Digital Directorate\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/#\/schema\/person\/ee4d9f144db1f0c55b7d4f1118dfeeb6\",\"name\":\"Jono Ellis\",\"description\":\"Performance Manager for the MyGov programme.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.twitter.com\/jonoellis\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/author\/jonoellis\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Five principles for generating usable user research - Digital","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/2014\/09\/09\/five-principles-generating-usable-user-research\/","og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"Five principles for generating usable user research - Digital","og_description":"This is a post by Cat Macaulay, our User Research Lead and is part of our series on Standards & Guidelines Building a user research practice into a large and complex project like mygov.scot is a pretty daunting task. So as we start out on this journey, we wanted to try and give ourselves some...","og_url":"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/2014\/09\/09\/five-principles-generating-usable-user-research\/","og_site_name":"Digital","article_published_time":"2014-09-09T14:59:23+00:00","article_modified_time":"2017-07-20T09:23:43+00:00","author":"Jono Ellis","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Jono Ellis","Estimated reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/2014\/09\/09\/five-principles-generating-usable-user-research\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/2014\/09\/09\/five-principles-generating-usable-user-research\/"},"author":{"name":"Jono Ellis","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/#\/schema\/person\/ee4d9f144db1f0c55b7d4f1118dfeeb6"},"headline":"Five principles for generating usable user research","datePublished":"2014-09-09T14:59:23+00:00","dateModified":"2017-07-20T09:23:43+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/2014\/09\/09\/five-principles-generating-usable-user-research\/"},"wordCount":1006,"commentCount":0,"keywords":["Design and User Experience","Standards & Guidelines","user research"],"articleSection":["Digital Public Services","mygov.scot"],"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/2014\/09\/09\/five-principles-generating-usable-user-research\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/2014\/09\/09\/five-principles-generating-usable-user-research\/","url":"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/2014\/09\/09\/five-principles-generating-usable-user-research\/","name":"Five principles for generating usable user research - Digital","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/#website"},"datePublished":"2014-09-09T14:59:23+00:00","dateModified":"2017-07-20T09:23:43+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/#\/schema\/person\/ee4d9f144db1f0c55b7d4f1118dfeeb6"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/2014\/09\/09\/five-principles-generating-usable-user-research\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/2014\/09\/09\/five-principles-generating-usable-user-research\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/2014\/09\/09\/five-principles-generating-usable-user-research\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Five principles for generating usable user research"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/#website","url":"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/","name":"Digital","description":"Updates from the Scottish Government's Digital Directorate","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/#\/schema\/person\/ee4d9f144db1f0c55b7d4f1118dfeeb6","name":"Jono Ellis","description":"Performance Manager for the MyGov programme.","sameAs":["https:\/\/www.twitter.com\/jonoellis"],"url":"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/author\/jonoellis\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1479","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/224"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1479"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1479\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}