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Blog posted by: Dan Stevenson and Stephen Mokogwu, 17 November 2017 – Categories:User research.

User researchers work across the Home Office, gaining insight to improve services in immigration, passports and borders. None of this could happen without user research participants and somewhere to talk to and observe them.

Labs can be expensive – a typical London lab costs up to £1,500 a day.

Which is why the Research Services team has created research labs in Croydon and Sheffield. Every time you hold research in our labs, we’re making significant savings.

Participant recruitment

Labs are great, but without participants there’s no user research. Research Services can help here, too. We’re creating a participant recruitment service and will take this opportunity to explain how it works.

The first thing to say is that recruiting user research participants takes time, so get in touch early if you think you might want our help.

We suggest that researchers start with an initial consultation with our team. This lets us learn about the kinds of participants you need and offer recommendations for finding them. Depending on your research, we might also suggest places where you can find suitable participants yourself.

It also lets us review any ethical considerations and make sure we get informed consent.

We might email participants who have agreed to be contacted, so we’re directly recruiting participants at no cost to the project. We’re also building contacts with external organisations, charities and consumer groups, so people in these sectors can take part in our research.

By making recruitment easier for participants who already use our services or have a relationship with us, we can save the Home Office at least £70 per participant.

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