ONS Digital

For those who’ve seen our shout-outs for people to take part in research over the last few years, you’ll be aware we’ve been building a panel of volunteers to participate in user research for the website for quite some time now. We’re always looking to reach new users and grow our panel.

Why are we doing this?

The best-placed people to help us improve the website and our products are our users. Without your help, we can’t make things better or design new features in a way that works for you. We have an ongoing programme of research planned, not just for new ways of disseminating data, but also to improve current products.

How much of your time will this take?

This is completely up to you, if you take part in everything that’s fine … if you’d rather go walk the dog that’s fine too. Signing up to join our panel commits you to nothing, you can do as little or as much as you want.

What does it involve?

Any contact we make with you will be via email, so we’ll send you a link to any research we are running. Most of our research will be online surveys or tasks we may ask you to try and complete. We also carry out usability testing across the UK – we ask where you live, so we can contact you if you live nearby.

How do I get involved?

Complete our short survey and you’re in – you can leave at any time too.

What’s the benefit of getting involved?

Take our current  customise my data project, we’ve carried out a lot of research around this – so far around 1,500 people have helped us get to where we are now. We’ve changed much on our journey, all as a result of what we’ve learnt from users along the way – things like adding a preview of your data selections, merging search and browse options and the move to nested geography lists.

Can I see what you’re doing?

We’re open about everything we do, for every sprint Matt posts sprint notes so you can see what we’ve been up to.

Who can get involved?

Everybody – no matter how much or little you use our site, every bit of feedback and learning is valuable, all users are important to us, so working across all user types is something we’re really keen to do. It doesn’t matter where you are or what you do – everybody is welcome.

We’ve still got a way to go, and lots to learn, so join our register and be part of our journey.