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User centred design

How we're building a bespoke IT system to achieve nutrient mitigation for new house building

On the left a lady, with long fair hair and wearing a black and white spotted blouse, on the right a man with short dark hair and a beard wearing a black and red checked shirt.

Samantha Denham and Gregor Neeve give us a look behind the scenes at the work that went into building a digital solution to support a key plank of the Government’s housebuilding strategy.

How content design and teamwork contributed to Countryside Stewardship

Posted by: and , Posted on: - Categories: Defra content design, User centred design
photo of fields and rolling hills

On World Environment Day we hear how colleagues from the Rural Payments Agency (RPA) worked with content designers from the Defra farming content team to improve the scheme guidance on GOV.UK, ahead of the launch of this year’s Countryside Stewardship (CS) schemes. 

Accessibility: designing an inclusive and barrier-free user experience

Posted by: , and , Posted on: - Categories: User centred design
On the left, a minimalistic cartoon avatar of Christopher, a white man with messy brown hair, glasses, and a beard, wearing a bright pink hoodie. Centre, Portrait photo of Chris, a white male with not much cropped brown hair and beard, wearing a checked purple shirt. On the right, Anime style avatar of Zico, a dark skinned man with straight black hair crossing part of his face, and brown eyes, wearing a grey t-shirt and white hooded unzipped grey jacket. Not shown, lots of freckles.

Chris Jenkins, Zico Harris and Christopher J from the Defra Digital, Data and Technology Accessibility Team asked an artificially intelligent large language model a question around this topic. When it served up a generic blog, they decided to write their own instead.

What I’ve learned about panel management in a growing research team – Part Two

Posted by: , Posted on: - Categories: Defra digital, Defra services, User centred design, User research
A selection of different coloured post it notes with the word ‘feedback, written below.

Jason Stockwell continues with his blog about managing user research panels. In the second and final part, he discusses the challenge of constant recruitment, how to bring teams together and the prospect of personal burnout.

What I’ve learned about panel management in a growing research team – Part One

Posted by: , Posted on: - Categories: Defra digital, Defra service design, User centred design, User research
A cartoon drawing of post-it notes disguised as people looking at a discussion board with the word ‘sessions’ written above it.

User research panel manager Jason Stockwell reflects on what happens when a user research project grows suddenly, and quickly, and how this needs to be managed to keep things on track.

Become a content designer in Defra’s future farming team

Posted by: , and , Posted on: - Categories: Defra content design, Defra digital, User centred design
Sue Agnew, Jenn Brookbanks and Tom Metcalf

Defra is recruiting content designers for its future farming programme. Sue Agnew, Jenn Brookbanks and Tom Metcalf recently joined the team. Read about their experience of the content design role and what they enjoy about it, to help you decide if this role is right for you. 

Volunteering: Part two - how our three days a year make a difference

Posted by: and , Posted on: - Categories: Defra content design, Defra digital, User centred design
Brightly coloured cards spread out on a table.

In the second part of this blog on volunteering, Tania MacDonnell and Emy Yeboah, from Defra’s User Centred Design team, share their experience of volunteering and what inspired them to take part in a volunteering day.