User needs and research
Start your project by knowing as much about your users as possible. Learn how they interact with your service and any barriers they might be facing.
Minimum you need to do
Identify your users
Include current and prospective users. Use existing research to know their needs.
Plan your user research approach
Plan to gather evidence. Decide how you will analyse and use your insights.
Be ethical with user research
Includes getting user consent, ensuring privacy and keeping information secure.
When to do user research
You should research from the start of your project. Use any insights to inform your concept, before you start designing. Find out about your users’ needs at every stage in your product or service design.
Who’s responsible?
It’s important that everyone in the team gets involved in understanding user needs. If possible, ask your team members to sit in on user research sessions. Otherwise include them in playback of your findings and insights.
Why you need to do this
It’s good practice to avoid making assumptions about our users’ wants, needs and experiences. When you do user research with a wide range of people, you can learn from observing their different approaches to the same task.