Skip to main content

Your privacy settings

We use cookies to help you with journey planning and relevant disruptions, remember your login and show you content you might be interested in. If you’re happy with the use of cookies by West Midlands Combined Authority and our selected partners, click ‘Accept all cookies’. Or click ‘Manage cookies’ to learn more.

Manage Cookies
Beta

This is a new service - your feedback will help us to improve it.

User research

Introduction

User research helps teams learn about users and create services that meet their needs.

Without it, you won’t know what problems you’re trying to solve, what to build or if the service you create will work well for users.

We're a team that's open to new tools and iterate our processes on a regular basis.

The resources provided are intended as a starting point rather than a definitive guide.

Which platforms do we use?

  • Maze for prototype testing and early discovery work
  • Miro for collaboration, remote workshops and idea creation
  • Hotjar for heatmaps, polls and quick surveys
  • Google Analytics for analysing user behaviour
  • Campaign Monitor for sending research communications to our User Testing Group

Research method toolbox

Heatmaps

See how users are behaving on the page - where are they clicking? Are they navigating the page in the expected way?

User workshops

Get users into the same space to deep-dive through whole subject areas or co-create solutions

Online surveys

A quantitative and qualitative method of establishing attitudes and behaviours

In-browser polls

Capture the sentiment of users for a specific service area with a few quick questions

Telephone interviews

Talk to users to explore an area in depth

Prototype testing

Use Maze to establish the usability of prototypes before development

In-content feedback loops

Understand user sentiment towards content and get feedback if something is wrong on the page

Card sorting and tree testing

Test the hierarchy and structure of content - do users group services and content in the same way as the business?

Customer journey mapping

Map out real user journeys beyound their interaction with our services

Google Analytics

Analyse how parts of our websites and services are used, what users are searching for and how users behave

Contextual interviews

Meet a user in their environment to ask questions relevant to their surroundings

Highlighter testing

Check whether users understand our emails and letters. Do we give too much information? Do we not give them the right information?

Stakeholder mapping

Map out who to speak with about a service or website

Stakeholder workshops

Get under the skin of a service or business area and understand stakeholder expectations

Service blueprints

Check whether users understand our emails and letters. Do we give too much information? Do we not give them the right information?

Reframing the problem

Before trying to create a solution, analyse a problem statement to check whether you are researching the right thing

Assumptions and questions

Collect assumptions and questions to test and identify high-risk assumptions to prioritise for research

Assistive technology testing

Test whether a service is fully accessible by involving users of assistive technology

User research resources

Blogs and resources we have found helpful: