Conducting User Research in the Public Sector

For those of us working in the public sector, conducting user research often feels like a far off dream. Regulations, red tape and long approval times often mean going without incentives for users, professional recruiting firms, or the luxury of fully-tricked out lab settings. But that doesn’t mean it’s impossible to research or test your work with users. In this seminar, we’ll explore different ways to recruit participants and a range of approaches to testing when no one has money to spend. We’ll share real-world examples from research conducted for different agencies within the federal government and across city and local governments, what works and what doesn’t, and clever workarounds that allow public sector researchers to get private sector results.

What You’ll Learn:

• A range of research techniques that allow you to get the findings you need for free
• How to find research subjects who will participate without incentives, including:
  • How to frame your research to the general public to encourage them to participate
  • Finding users in unlikely places

Topics Covered:

• Free research techniques for public sector projects
  • Using intercept interviews for preference testing, light usability, and basic research topics
  • Dos and don’ts learned from intercept interviews conducted for different federal agencies 
  • Observation: when and how to do it
• Recruiting subjects without incentives
  • How and when to use friends and family
  • Framing your research to encourage participation by the general public
  • Finding research participants in public places
  • Recruiting participants from other areas of government