Principle 2: Understand your users

Users and customers

Our products all have users and customers. Sometimes these are the same thing, but this is not always the case.

Users are the people who interact with the product or service you're building.

Customers are the people who are affected by the outcome - they benefit from the policy or service. The customers are sometimes different people from the users of the service.

At DfE, our customers may be children, learners and those who support them such as parents, employers, teachers and social workers.

Know your users

We need to understand and appreciate our users and their needs. We also need to understand technical and business needs. We need to balance the 2 sets of needs through the development of a product or service.

You should attend user research sessions whenever you can, and encourage your team to do the same. It's an invaluable way to understand your users.

You should understand the life of your users outside of your service. You should know their context and motivation, and understand what they’re trying to achieve.

Inclusive design

You should consider what inclusive design looks like. Think about inclusion, barriers, accessibility, privacy and ethics.

Ask yourself:

  • how can we make a service that everyone can use, and that works for everyone?
  • does my product solve my users’ problem in the right way?
  • do I know what to look out for to make sure we’re making something that’s accessible and that works for everyone?