Another very busy week.

Learning more about different methods of user research

Sophie’s continued to attend her User Research Fundamentals course run by CDPS. The course has been excellent so far, with in depth examples and opportunities to test our knowledge with UR activities.

This week, Sophie and her cohort explored the different user research methods and the positive and negative aspects of each approach.

In the grid above, diagnostic methods of research are compared against measurement methods of research:

  • The diagnostic approach quickly highlights real problems and can be used early in the design process to support rapid iterative development, however thinking aloud may affect user behaviour and performance levels.
  • The measurement approach provides real performance data and answers the question: “How usable is this product?” The downside to this approach is that tasks can sometimes be artificial or restricted. Additionally, statistical analysis of data can be time consuming.

The session also looked at the participant numbers needed to gain an accurate picture of usability in a series of scenarios with differing goals, from political goals like persuasion within an organisation, to looking for all usability issues.

Overall, Sophie’s thoroughly enjoying her time on this course and learning more about user research. Each session leaves her thinking more about how we can apply some of these learnings in everyday tasks to ensure we embed user research into our work process.

Bangor AI conference

Heledd’s highlight of the week was the Bangor AI conference. This is a catchy name for a conference in Bangor about Artificial Intelligence and the Welsh language. If you’re not local, Google’s AI helps explain it…

Highlights from the session:

  • Majority of the room had used AI (intentionally) in the past month (but only a handful for more strategic / business planning / etc).
  • The room was a great mix of people. It was all in Welsh, but there were live translations for the non-Welsh speakers in the audience.
  • Focus on using it to do the boring tasks (can it do the washing up, clear up our email, do our admin??), so we can focus more on the creative stuff we love to do more of?

Standout moments:

  • Meinir shared the change curve, something a lot of us have seen before, but always a good reminder when thinking about new tech.
  • Hearing about the work they’re doing with schools etc.
  • Steffano from Techiaith talked us through their work—creating Welsh language tools that anyone can use, like:
  • Masen (Welsh Siri)
  • Dictionaries and transcription tools
  • A Welsh voiceover generator for videos
  • The bilingual transcription tool really stood out—picking up both Welsh and English in the same sentence, just like how people actually speak here.
  • Steffano reminded us that it’s all open source – and APIs are available for our organsiations to use within technology workflows

Why it matters:

  • Gareth Morlais shared a powerful story from the Welsh Government’s 2050 Welsh Language Unit—how his son, who has dyslexia, struggled in school because there weren’t any Welsh-language assistive tools at the time. His goal? Making sure future generations can learn and work in Welsh with the right technology.
  • Bangor University’s “voice bank” is doing something amazing—recording people’s voices so that if they lose their ability to speak (due to conditions like motor neurone disease or cancer), they can still have a Welsh voice on their speech device.
  • Klaire Tanner wrapped things up by sharing her top tips of how AI helps her get rid of the boring admin so she can focus on the creative work. Her big takeaway? AI won’t replace people… but people using AI will replace you!

The event left Heledd optimistic and inspired, but also thinking about the gap between how individuals and small businesses are using AI compared to the public sector.

With Welsh public sector AI guidelines on the way, there are still big questions around things like FOI concerns, data protection, and making sure AI is used ethically and sustainably. If we don’t educate ourselves on this, we could end up on the back foot.

A brilliant event, full of ideas and energy—and lots of new connections. (Heledd asked Chat GPT to help edit this)

Other things we’ve been working on…

  • Users who sign up to receive flood messages will now be able to send themselves test messages after the latest release by the flood product team.
  • Lots of other stuff – but we’re out of time at the end of this week to share