Engaging your future users

Developing technology strategies for any group of people can be very complex and difficult to get right because so many interests may be involved in the success or failure.

The approach that you take to identifying and reaching people that you will interact with online depends on what you are trying to achieve, and the way you aim to go about it. For example, if you are offering clear-cut products and services you might take a market research approach to discover more about people’s needs and what your ‘audience’ or ‘customers’ will pay or otherwise commit. On the other hand, if you want to build an online community you need to find and cherish those champions who will work alongside you, contributing content and recruiting others. In that case, you need to draw upon engagement techniques rather than market research and marketing expertise.

Target those using the tools or involved in your services first: whether they are staff members, board members, volunteers, or community members. They already have a connection to the project and will have the best opportunity to see the potential uses for these tools. Seek out people who are already using digital and social tools too, as they will be able to see more possibilities and suggest what you might build for them. After that, seek out those using your services or otherwise engaging with you but aren’t online to see what barriers they are currently facing and how your organisation’s use of technology could be open to them.

Some design processes include profiling users, where the designers invent profiles of typical users, their web habits, communication preferences, what they want and need, and even demographic and personal information. A quicker way to achieve some of that understanding of your users though is to identify real people who you want to reach, and base the project around them. Select a few people who represent the broad types of users you are seeking (how you divide them depends on the project), and invite them in, interview them, write up their profile and wants and needs, and then keep involving them throughout the process as user champions, critiquing designs, testing new features and so on. That way, you know you are designing for real people, and if you build something they like there is more chance others will like it too.

How many users you choose to involve depends on the size of your target audience, the practicalities of getting people engaged, and the amount of time and money you have to spend on engagement. Over 90 local people from all walks of life took part in developing the specification for Talk2Croydon, mainly through focus groups and interviews. Other projects consult a few key stakeholders and involve them closely in the design and development process. Some people will commit more time than others, so cherish those early champions while ensuring you check their preferences against those of others. In addition, be prepared to review your expectations of what will interest people against what actually does during development, provided you don’t lose track of your overall purpose.

The techniques that you use should also reflect your aims and approach, and how many people you need to engage. User interviews, focus groups and even large stakeholder workshops all work well for capturing user opinions, but if you can’t get people together physically there are other options. User surveys (ten questions maximum please) are a good way to get some feedback on your ideas and your users’ desires. Online engagement might work well for some groups of people, and even if you do run events too it’s always a good idea to have an open discussion space and an e-mail address where users can engage with the project. A project blog can be a very effective way to run online engagement, as can discussion forums for more established projects.

Talking about what people might, should or will be able to do isn’t very interesting. Get staff members and others playing with the tools, and then talk about what people are already doing. Those experiences and direct examples are much more compelling for new users.

Don’t forget about video and photos too. Interview users and share the footage publicly to show that you are listening to people and valuing their contributions. Get someone to interview you too, and put that online to show that you’re a real person and help people understand what you’re doing. Seeing someone on video really helps to build trust in them: you can see their body language, levels of emotion, get a feeling for who they really are. A lot of that important human stuff gets lost when you’re just reading someone’s words on a screen. (Here’s more on how to shoot and upload videos.)

Use any opportunity you can for conversations and co-design exercises. Your ability to reach people and get them to respond though depends less on the tools you use and more on whether you have good relationships with them already, and understand what they are interested in. This is where getting into the conversation early pays great dividends. The more you listen, the more you know – but also the more opportunities you will find to engage people in your project.