User research in Department for Education

Guidance, information and support for any user researcher working in Department for Education

This website should be used alongside DfE Apply the Service Standard, and it complements the user research section in the UK Government Service Manual, which covers user research more broadly.

• New starters in user research at DfE

  What you need to know if you’ve just joined DfE as a civil servant or contractor user researcher.

• Community meetups and Slack channels

  How we come together as one DfE user research community to learn and support each other.

Our working principles of user research Beta

These are the principles that we hold ourselves to as user researchers at DfE. Find out more about our principles, why they exist, and how we help you meet them.

• 1. We include all of our users, and bring them to the heart of the department’s work

  This principle is about researching in a way that is inclusive of all our users, and ensuring our teams understand them and their needs.

• 2. We are objective and use evidence

  This principle is about helping our teams to do what’s right for users, avoiding assumptions, and mitigating biases.

• 3. We do high quality, safe and ethical research

  This principle is about ensuring we and our teams always meet high professional standards for user research.

• 4. We are adaptable and collaborative, and focus our research in the right places

  This principle is about the way we work in our teams and with other user researchers to help deliver DfE’s goals.

• 5. We learn as a community and by ourselves

  This principle is about developing as user researchers, and coming together in our user research community.

• 6. We celebrate our work, and help others understand what we do

  This principle is about advocating for user research in our teams, the department, and the wider world.