A presentation at World IA Day London 2024 in in London, UK by London World IA Day
Zooming out: how understanding context can help GOV.UK better serve its audience Chris Marshall — Lead User Researcher, GDS Marina Filiba — Senior Service Designer, GDS London 2024
GOV.UK Future Thinking Team 🌱 Chris Marshall & Marina Filiba Government Digital Service
GDS
700,000+ pages 11 million weekly visitors 74% visits on a mobile GDS
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Zooming out How understanding context can help GOV.UK better understand its audience
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New Strategy ● Grow GOV.UK to reach people when and where they need government information ● Make GOV.UK more proactive in helping people ● Evolve to match user expectations for new technologies GDS
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🌱 Temperature controlled
🌱 Temperature controlled 🌱 Transparent
🌱 Temperature controlled 🌱 Transparent 🌱 Safe space to plant seeds
Enable GOV.UK to understand its current and future users better, and to anticipate and respond to their changing expectations GDS
Why we are here Thinking contextually
PEOPLE GDS
GENDER AGE OCCUPATION PEOPLE CITIZENSHIP STATUS FINANCIAL SITUATION GEOGRAPHY GDS
GENDER AGE OCCUPATION PEOPLE CITIZENSHIP STATUS FINANCIAL SITUATION GEOGRAPHY GDS
FAMILY GENDER AGE IDENTITY OCCUPATION FRIENDS FUN PEOPLE CITIZENSHIP STATUS BELIEFS FINANCIAL SITUATION GEOGRAPHY HEALTH GDS
FAMILY GENDER AGE IDENTITY OCCUPATION FRIENDS FUN PEOPLE CITIZENSHIP STATUS BELIEFS FINANCIAL SITUATION GEOGRAPHY HEALTH GDS
❒ Family ❒ Fun ❒ Health GDS
❒ Occupation ❒ Financial Situation ❒ Family GDS
How we’ve innovated Testing different methods
DISCOVERY ALPHA BETA LIVE ON GOV.UK GDS
DISCOVERY ? ALPHA BETA LIVE ON GOV.UK GDS
● Preconceived assumptions ? ● Who are we excluding - why? ● Broader context GDS
“Context is fundamental to the way we come to understand people, situations, and ideas. (…) It is the background information that allows people to make informed decisions.”
Going beyond interviews GDS
● User interviews & usability tests ● Service usage & support data ● Secondary data ● Context-driven methods Comprehensive understanding of users GDS
Play LEGO Serious Play GDS
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Futures Speculation Postcards from the Future GDS
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Adapted Ethnography 50+ Digital Drop-Ins GDS
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Co-Discovery Southwark Pensioners Forum GDS
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Trying new approaches can help us: ● Challenge assumptions ● Unlock creative thinking for how we can remove barriers to digital government ● Include “underserved” groups in the research and design process GDS
GOV.UK? Never heard of it “I wouldn’t even think to go on a government website” “We don’t automatically think about digital” GDS
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Zoom in closer out wider
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GOV.UK Segmentation GDS
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Sounds great. How will we build it? GDS
FAMILY GENDER AGE IDENTITY OCCUPATION FRIENDS FUN PEOPLE CITIZENSHIP STATUS BELIEFS FINANCIAL SITUATION GEOGRAPHY HEALTH GDS
What we’ve learnt And what we can do with it
Default methods contextual GOV.UK MICRO Immersive Methods MACRO Audience Segmentation GDS
Thinking contextually helps us consider design interventions as part of a broader landscape GDS
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Insights ● Lack of understanding around eligibility ● Contextual and timely support is needed ● Expectation of a government that proactively reaches out to offer support GDS
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SPECULATIVE CONCEPT GDS
SPECULATIVE CONCEPT GDS
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Questions? 🌿
Thank you! 🪴 Chris Marshall & Marina Filiba
Government services don’t operate in a vacuum. Interacting with government is part of a much larger user story, and at the Greenhouse team, we are looking to understand how we can help GOV.UK better reflect the mental models people have of government.
Over the last year, the Greenhouse team have been trialling a range of methods that are not typical of those used by government researchers. These methods have the potential to deepen our understanding of GOV.UK’s current and potential users, and were the starting point for speculative design explorations that reimagine what the GOV.UK of the future could look like.
Chris and Marina will showcase the work of the Greenhouse team, and make a case for why context-driven research and design can help the programme to better understand the needs of user groups that we know are not well served by GOV.UK today, and find opportunities to reach better and support them.
The following resources were mentioned during the presentation or are useful additional information.
Chris Marshall is a Lead User Researcher at GDS.
Marina Filiba is a Senior Service Designer at GDS.
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