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What It Is
People and businesses use state government services to help them get something done (e.g., obtain a license for their profession, register the name of their new business, renew their driver’s license).
"User needs" are the needs that a user has of a service, with that service providing the right outcome for them.
Why It's Important
Your users' success = your success!
- Improved customer engagement when digital services are easy to use by all, reliable and predictable—and meet Coloradan’s needs, engagement in state services improves.
- Reduce costs by improved self-service, reducing in-person touchpoints, reducing call center volume, reduce duplication of work across divisions and agencies.
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How to Do It
- Identify all possible user groups with your team.
- Ask each team member to make a list of all the possible categories of people who might be a user of your product. Have them do this individually then compare notes as a team. The most popular answers will be your base categories.
- Segment the categories into useful groups within the context of your product.
- Examples include profession, knowledge level, technical ability.
- Write the name of each type of user on a sticky note. This is your User Group.
- Examples include business owner, thought-leader, researcher, DIYer.
- Evaluate your users and categories, add or subtract User Group as needed
- Assign attributes to each User Group. Use multicolored post-it notes and separate the attributes into the following categories.
- Wants/needs: responsibilities and/or goals- “I have to…”, “I want to…”, “I need to…”
- Pain points: assign specific difficulties: “I find __ to be hard”, “I get irritated when….”
- Design essentials: What does this user need from the product in order for them to feel satisfied? Be specific.
- Once you’ve written out your attributes assign them to each User Group as you think they would apply to a user within that category.
- Prioritize the User Groups in the context of the business goals that they align with.
- Validate your work with further customer research including interviews, usability testing, and observation.
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Learn More
Community Partnership Principles Guide (PDF), Colorado Equity Alliance
Different Ways to Identify User Segments, UX Collective
You Are Not the User: The False-Consensus Effect, Nielsen Norman Group
‘Our Users Are Everyone’: Designing Mass-Market Products for Large User Audiences, Nielsen Norman Group
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