DfE user research community principle 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.

It means that when we research, we include a broad range of users to make sure we have a deep and contextual understanding of all our users and their needs, using their own words to tell the right stories.

How you know you're meeting this principle

As a user researcher at DfE, you’ll know you’re successfully doing this because:

  • You recruit users diversely and inclusively, thinking about how to fully represent your service users across your research
  • You are able to fluently talk about your users, the problems they face, and how your service area or project fits into wider aspects of their lives
  • You understand how being a member of a minority or excluded group may impact a user's experiences of DfE and their needs of your service
  • You know the population sizes of different groups of users of your service, and can demonstrate how your user research complements this data
  • You have researched with users with disabilities, and users of assistive technology
  • You are open to feedback from research participants, and use this to improve your practice

How we support you

Right now, we help you to meet this principle with:

In the future (see our profession roadmap), we want to have:

  • Our own participant panel to recruit from (this is already in beta in the Services for Schools portfolio)
  • Participant recruitment specialists in each portfolio
  • Access to a range of specialist participant recruitment suppliers
  • Full inclusive research guidance, training and support
  • A method to gather feedback from participants on their experience of our research

Discuss our principles

Give feedback or suggest changes to this principle by using the 'give us feedback' link at the top of this page.