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Hello! In this folder, you'll find information specific to how Research works on VA.gov.
- Slack channels: #design, #feedback-backchannel, #vetsdotgov-research
- Github labels: research
The Research point of contact is:
- Shane Strassberg, @Shane Strassberg on Slack
The following list is a set of resources compiled by the people in your practice area to help you do your work and answer questions you might have. Some of the links may take you to other sites and resources outside this repo. If you need a hand with anything, don't hesitate to ping the Slack channels and people listed above. Request or Do Research
- 5 things designers and researchers wish you knew about research
- Veteran population demographics
- Planning and Process Management
- Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) and Recruiting
- History of research projects on Veteran Facing Tools
- Scheduling and running research sessions
- Synthesis
The content in this folder was made with love by multiple generations of our designers and researchers.
Current maintainer of this directory: Lauren Alexanderson
This folder includes research resources, processes & guidance, and information about the research practice. It does NOT include design components or research components for specific products. You should find those in the appropriate product folder.
Welcome to the team! If all has gone well, you've made it through our main orientation section and you're ready to start working in your practice area. This should help you get started.
You've already gone through the overall onboarding, but here you'll find information specific to research. Note that research falls under the design practice, so most of the information will be found there.
- Research Process - Updated June 2018: This is the process and checklists for doing research. Should be led and managed by the designer on the team.
- Complete Research Plan: Designers complete and maintain research plan.
- Research Checklist: All the things that go into a research session.
- History of Research: A working directory of completed research
- 5 Things Designers & Researchers Wish YOU Knew about Research
Your go-to folder for guidance and templates. This folder is broken into parts of research process.
In this folder you will find:
- Link to the research process
- End-to-end checklist for researchers
- Link to the research plan template
- Conversation guide template
- How to use Zenhub to track research
In this folder you will find:
- Guidance about our PRA approval and how to use it
- Guidance about screening participants for specific studies
- Guidance about recruiting participants for different types of research
- Language for research outreach on social media/etc.
- Official screening language that you can use.
- (forthcoming) Guidance on how to use Ripple
In this folder you will find:
- templates for consent forms
- language to use to schedule sessions and follow-up with participants after
- guidance and logistics for the tools that we use to conduct research
- instructions for notetakers and observers
In this folder you will find:
- Guidance on how to do research synthesis for different types of studies (Work in Progress)
- Guidance on how to use specific synthesis tools
- A template for documenting how a session / study went
- Recruiting resources
- Ripple resources
- Digital Tools available to support research & synthesis
- Methodology resources
This is an internal organizing tool for research and ux leads and anyone supporting admin on research.
Some product research docs are cross-posted here. The new model is for these to live in product folders We are working on making sure that the research elements live in appropriate product folders.
- Slack: All conversations about products should take place in the appropriate DSVA product channel, not a private DM, an AdHoc only, or DSVA only channel.
- Bring any design questions for your fellow designers to the design channel.
- Bring any research questions to the vetsdotgov-research channel.
- GitHub: Both for code and for storing #allthethingz. This is our knowledge management system too, so document everything!
- Your research process should be documented end-to-end in a research plan stored in your product folder. When you're done with research, add your study & the link to your research folder to the Research History - Your design decisions should also be documented in your product folder; upload and store design files, link to prototypes and templates.
- Join.me: We conduct our meetings on join.me/vetsdotgov-design. If you need to use the design channel at times when we don't have meetings check with UX Lead. You can also use join.me to conduct some types of research sessions, if you don't need the user to interact with a prototype.
- Ripple: Ripple is our Veteran database for research. We also have other options to recruit Veterans. Check in with UX/Research lead for support.
- GoToMeeting: This is the tool we use to conduct remote research sessions. Requires you to have the desktop version to use. Review the GoToMeeting Instructions before you use it. Check in with UX/Research Lead if you need support.
- Zoom: This is the tool we use to conduct remote research sessions with users who rely on assistive devices like screenreaders. Review Zoom Instructions before you use it. Also check out the Zoom Assistive Tech Checklist and Troubleshooting guide for tips about using Zoom with participants who rely on screen readers.
- Optimal Workshop: This is a research tool you can use to conduct card sorts, tree tests, or unmoderated prototype tests. You can also use the Reframer tool within Optimal Workshop to synthesize research.
- Alex Taylor is account owner
- Handrail: This tool facilitates notetaking during research sessions and synthesis.
- Mural: This is a great group brainstorming tool. Can be used to conduct remote post-it synthesis, etc.
- Trello: Trello is a free tool that can also be used to conduct remote synthesis with your team.
There is not a separate research meeting, outside of research readouts for specific products & PI research readouts. The schedule for the former are determined by the product team and their stakeholders; the schedule for the latter is set by Research Lead. Designers discuss their research plans, issues, lessons learned, and readouts in the design meetings. Design meeting schedule