Page 75 - Procurement guidelines for smart sustainable cities - A U4SSC deliverable

Why it's important

Users are the people expected to use the product or service public officials and stakeholders are
commissioning. Carrying out research on their needs will help ensure that public officials and
stakeholders:

• test any assumptions they have about their users;

• ensure there is a valid need for what they are procuring; and

• make services better value and cheaper to run in the long term.

What it means

User research means finding out what people are really trying to do, and the real problems they
experience trying to get something done. This can involve some or all of the following activities:

• interviewing people about how they use a product or service;
• watching how users work through a given task, ideally at their workplace;

• inviting users to take part in a focus group;

• working directly with diverse Disabled People Organizations representatives;
• using analytics to find out what users do on a website;

• commissioning user research on a sample of citizens.

Unless public officials and stakeholders have a clear idea of who their users are, they should
research with a diverse range of users with a mix of ages, abilities and backgrounds. Public officials
and stakeholders should also consider how to include people who need help using computers or
other digital services.

Always ask for consent when doing user research, and be clear on how people’s data will be used.
Where possible hire a professional user researcher to ensure research is carried out responsibly.

Once public officials and stakeholders have some research, they can look for patterns in user
behaviour and, in particular, any frustrations users have. This will help them to write appropriate
outcomes for their procurement based on valid needs.

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