Criterion 2. Know your user

Criterion 2 – Know your user

Deeply understanding the contexts and reasons that users choose or avoid a service will reveal how to make it more valuable to them.

Your responsibilities

To successfully meet this criterion, agencies will need to:

understand the service’s users
conduct user research
test and validate designs.

When to apply this criterion

Apply Criterion 2 during the Discovery phase to validate initial assumptions made in Criterion 1 (‘Have a clear intent’). Test and validate the service with users as knowledge of the problem grows.

User needs aren’t static. Revisit this criterion across the Service design and delivery process to provide reliable, accessible services to users, when they need them.

Questions for consideration

Who will use this service?
What are their wants and needs?
What are their pain points and frustrations?
What is their current experience with this or other services?
What devices and technology do they use?

How to apply criterion 2

Listen carefully for implicit and explicit needs: During user research, discuss their daily lives and observe their real-world actions to contextualise their needs. Use a discussion guide to capture all aspects of their experience. While some needs or pain points will be stated explicitly, pay attention to small or superfluous details to recognise the implicit ones. Use at least 2 methods of user research to make sure what they say matches what they do. For example, open-ended interviews and observing users completing relevant tasks.
Begin with pain points: Identify and address the most common pain points that the service should address. Prioritise them by most impactful; this isn’t necessarily the number of users affected. Adopt continuous improvement to address pain points that emerge after launch or upgrades.
Observe usage patterns: Use various data sources to identify how often different users use the service. Stress test any solutions for pain points along task journeys and assess load-bearing capacity during peak periods.
Map experiences: Use visual aids to make sure the breadth of user interactions are captured and that the team works from a shared understanding. Build, test and refine journey maps and job stories. This will help to understand the end-to-end user journeys and behind-the-scenes processes. It will also reduce unintentional duplication and support agencies to communicate findings.
Test any assumptions: Validate assumptions made in Criterion 1 (‘Have a clear intent’). Qualitative user research conducted directly with people who may be impacted by the service will provide agencies with either confirmation that they are on the right track, or that they are solving the wrong problem and need to adapt their approach.
Gather different perspectives: Undertake ethical and inclusive user research to capture a breadth of needs and capabilities. Zoom out and consider how the digital service interacts with the agency’s wider methods of service delivery. It is helpful to zoom in and out of the problem space to observe the different perspectives and impacts of the service being designed, and to explore how the problem may manifest at macro and micro levels.
Embed co-design: Where appropriate, use co-design to involve users and stakeholders and demonstrate transparent, equitable decision making. Avoid tokenism by meeting people’s physical, cultural and psychological safety needs in consultations. Maintain ongoing user engagement to keep the service fit for purpose and address changing needs over the course of people’s lives.
Engage designers: Make sure the team has the expertise to capture and interpret useful information from users’ personal experiences. Use service designers and user experience (UX) designers to conduct user research, map experiences and design the service to meet and surpass the needs of all users.

Guidance to know your user

Understand who uses your service and establish what their needs are. Use methods or tools such as:
- Regularly collect qualitative and quantitative data and user feedback from user research surveys, usability testing, interviews and focus groups.
- Use web analytics and user data to verify current users, including demographics, behaviours and usage patterns.
- Create user personas representing different segments of the user base to visualise the user and understand their needs.
Draw on feedback, data and insights to highlight the needs and challenges of users. Use methods or tools such as:
- Conduct a thorough analysis of any identified pain points or negative feedback to understand the root cause.
- Use an iterative design process, make incremental changes based on feedback and test these changes with users to assess their effectiveness.
- Prioritise pain points that have the most significant impact on user experience and ensure resources are allocated effectively.
Identify usage patterns and trends to paint a picture of the users of the service. Use methods or tools such as:
- Use analytics to identify usage patterns, such as peak usage times, common user paths and drop-off points.
- Prioritise features that align with identified usage patterns and user needs to ensure that resources are focused on what users value most.
- Continuously monitor usage data after implementing changes and adjust strategies as necessary. This will make sure improvements meet user needs.
- Combine user research efforts across the DX Policy and its standards to reduce duplication and the cost of research.
Document findings and recommendations to apply criterion 2:
- Collect qualitative and quantitative data through surveys, interviews and focus groups to understand user needs and experiences.
- Regularly collect feedback and analyse pain points to identify root causes, use an iterative design process to implement and test incremental changes.
- Prioritise the pain points that have the most significant impact on user experience and allocate resources effectively. Make sure the data is collected and documented in a centralised knowledge repository.

Digital Service Standard