User research

User research is essential for user centred design (UCD).

User research helps us to design and build a service that works well for all our users, including people who do not speak English as their first language and people with lower digital literacy.

Before we start work on a new project, we always try to understand our users and their journey through our services through research. We usually have at least one user researcher in a service team to help us with this.

As a user researcher, you will:

• help your team to learn about the people that use our services
• plan and run research activities with users
• use a range of research methods including interviews, observations and usability testing to build a picture of users’ environments, needs and contexts of use
• analyse research findings to produce actionable insights, which enables an evidence-based approach and reduces risks to delivery