Identify your users
Who are your users?
Think about all your users, such as:
- everyone who needs to use the service
- people with diverse needs based on factors like age, location, language and ability
- people who do not currently use digital services or need help to do so
- people in government who deliver the service.
Identifying your users
There's not one right way to find out who your users are. Think about identifying them using things like:
- data analytics of your current service, if you're improving a service
- data analytics of similar services, if you're designing a new service
- brainstorming with the delivery or product units in your agency
- sending out an online survey to your mailing list
- speaking to agencies delivering similar services
- exploring any relevant data on the data.nsw website.
What you need to find out
Once you have a good idea of who your users are, think about whether existing research or data will answer these questions. For example:
- why they need the service
- what needs the service meets for them
- their motivations and contexts
- how they're currently interacting with your service
- where their pain points are in how they do things currently.
Using existing research and data
A good way to start exploring these questions is by using any existing research and data. For example:
- data.nsw web surveys
- web analytics
- your agency's social media channels
- research reports
- surveys
- interviews
- ethnography (cultural immersion)
- data analysis
As well as looking at digital interactions, you should research any of their non-digital experiences such as by phone, post and face to face.
If you need to know more, consider doing in-depth research with your users. Do a cost-benefit analysis. Find out whether the benefit to the public of doing user research outweighs any risks. This analysis can be formal or informal.
The diversity of your user research participants should be in proportion to your budget and the amount of people using your service.
Resources
- Data.nsw - a wide range of NSW Government agency data
- Digital Transformation Agency: Use existing research and data