Building a user research practice in the Home Office
Katy Arnold at UX Brighton 2018
About this talk
The Home Office is responsible for delivering some of the most challenging and complex services in government. So it seems fitting that we have a team of 100 researchers and user centred designers helping us modernise how we work.
But it wasn’t always this way.
This talk showed how it is possible to advance user research in large organisations even when they’re not used to this way of working. Katy shared the steps they took to create space for people to do their best work, and how they built a vibrant user research practice in one of the great departments of state.
About Katy
As head of user research at the Home Office, Katy is at the forefront of work to shape essential digital services used by millions of people. She is committed to raising standards of user research in the department, and is building and leading a community of skilled practitioners within the UK Government.
Katy enjoys advocating for the value of user centred design and is passionate about building public services that work for everyone. She is a regular speaker at conferences and events around Europe.
Related reading
Books, research, ideas and people referenced in this talk.
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Projects and resources
- Government Digital Service00:49The talk credits work at the Government Digital Service with inspiring the team's practice.
- Home Office00:56The speaker introduces the Home Office as the government department where the team builds public-facing and internal services.
- UK Visas and Immigration24:21The talk says UK Visas and Immigration developed a Digital Inclusion team after this research.
Concepts
- Market Research Society03:34The talk says the team became members of the Market Research Society and tightened its approach to ethics and informed consent.
- General Data Protection Regulation03:52The talk says training in data protection and ethics put the team in a good position when GDPR arrived.
- Research with people with access needs09:47The talk describes training in access-needs awareness and research with people with access needs.
- Digital inclusion22:03The talk describes a brief to include people with low digital skills, low confidence or no internet access in service design.
People
- Grace Hopper06:03The talk cites Grace Hopper as the inspiration for going ahead and doing the right thing without waiting for permission.
