Our second round of user research

A double weeknote starting 3 February 2025.

These past couple of weeks have been a whirlwind. After our first round of user research 2 weeks ago (which really took up most of the week) we found out that our user researcher was sadly leaving.

This put a little extra pressure on an already busy week. We needed to analyse findings, playback the results, visit London to meet some stakeholders and learn more about the as-is products, and iterate the prototype ready for our next round of user research. Thanks to our great stand-in user researcher for helping us avoid postponing any of our plans. Our content designer also did some great work reviewing content with some policy folks.

I feel like the project is going well but I’m looking forward to some quieter times.

User research trip number 2

This week we had our second round of user research. Which meant another couple of days away from home, observing users in their environment, and then doing some usability testing with 5 more participants (that's 11 participants so far).

I was so distracted by meetings all week, I was still updating the prototype up until the night before the test. Obviously not ideal, I'll be more organised next time.

It’s been a lot of work, but I’ve been getting a buzz from the fast pace. I think working in this way is only really possible when you’re working at a mid or senior level. If I had more responsibility like line management or multiple products to look after I wouldn’t be able to pour so much energy in. So I’m thankful that my current contract allows it. And that my managers and team give me the space to work in this way.

Rough analysis of the user research

I finished off the week by going over my notes from the usability tests, to pull out a list of…

  • Scenarios – New, untested scenarios that we could consider adding to the prototype next time. I think some will need to be captured for later, to form a list of lower risk backlog items for the beta.
  • Recommendations – A short list of important things to fix.
  • Ideas – A long list of smaller experiments we could try, and see if they fix smaller issues we are noticing (or sometimes feeling).
  • Bugs – Mistakes or gaps in the prototype that users ran into.

I'll share these back with the team next week so help us do our group analysis.

Peaking behind the curtain

I’ve also been reminded that one of the perks of being a designer is that you get to see behind the scenes of whatever industry you are working in.

It’s a privilege to learn about, and have a small effect on things that impact real people, across the country. I don’t think many people outside of public service digital world always appreciate this. It sounds so boring whenever I try and explain it to my friends at least.

Outside of work

I went to see Jake Xerxes Fussell in Cardiff. I'm listening to a lot of folk and country at the moment. I blame the Yellowstone soundtrack.

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