Course: Introduction to User Research

Below is a glossary of commonly used terms that you will encounter through this course. agile: an iterative approach to delivering a project or service throughout its life cycle; agile …

Let’s thank our contributors! At Government Campus UK, we collaborated with a team of user researchers from across government to create this course and give our learners an insight into …

Congratulations! You have reached the end of Week 3 and the end of the course. What you learned this week This week we learned about the research process. We explored …

Effective communication is all about understanding your audience and how best to present information to them. At a low level, you need to be aware that prior knowledge of user …

Good communication is a key skill for a researcher. You need to be able to communicate with users, your team, and your stakeholders, especially when presenting your findings. As researchers, …

Data analysis leads to findings, but findings need to be turned into actionable insights. Once you’ve analysed your data, your findings are what you’ve learned. Findings are statements such as: …

Analysis is the process of using various tools and techniques to organise and interpret data so that you can gain useful insights. Analysis is quite often the bit people ‘forget’ …

After you have decided on your research questions and planned which methods you are going to use, you need to recruit participants. For your research to be effective, your participants …

As a researcher, you should get informed consent from all participants before research begins, and you should be aware of power imbalances and how these should be addressed. Informed consent …

In this video, user researchers discuss how they scope research. Research does not just happen – you need to plan. The process of designing and building services normally starts with …

Welcome to Week 3! This week, we will learn about ethical research and the importance of safeguarding. We will also explore of the practical aspects of planning and scoping research. …

Congratulations! You have reached the end of Week 2 What you learned this week This week we learned user research in the context of the UK government. We also learned …

In this video, user researchers discuss roadmaps. What is a roadmap? A roadmap is a communication tool. It is a strategic, living tool that prioritises and communicates future work. ‘Strategic’ …

User research should be conducted across all phases of the service life cycle. Getting the most out of your research requires careful and detailed planning. User research does not just …

Now that we have learned about agile, let’s explore a variation of the method – lean. As we learned in step 2.4, government projects historically followed a ‘waterfall’ approach, in …