User Testing for Register to Vote (Northern Ireland Overseas)

Tender description

Summary of the work We will need participants from Northern Ireland representing a varied demography of age, gender, ethnicity and digital capability (participants who already live abroad or are intending to move abroad are preferred). Participants should be willing to be audio recorded or filmed. Specialist role User researcher Expected Contract Length Six to eight weeks Latest start date Thursday 27 June 2019 Who Speclialist Work With You'll involve the Cabinet Office team in planning, observation, and analysis. What Specialists Work On You'll conduct research activities on overseas users from Northern Ireland, applying online to register to vote. You'll: - Conduct qualitative user research activities focusing on usability and comprehension testing - Identify, schedule and coordinate 12-15 participants. - Conduct two rounds of research with an interim debrief presenting an overview and discussing changes - Provide location for testing - Conduct analysis and produce report with findings, focusing on usability and comprehension testing. Include information about user needs, supplement existing user journey map defining pain points, and make recommendations on improvements. - Make a recommendation for any further research required. Skills & Experience • Conduct usability testing competently with a variety of users • Conduct analysis and pull together a report with the findings • Recruit participants who are representative of desired user groups and screen users based on specific criteria • Provide a single point of contact to reliably respond to communications by email or phone within 1 day • Arrange and manage participants, ensuring their attendance at the research. • Handle research incentives for participants • Recruit users for face to face usability testing • Recruit users for remote usability testing • Identify risks you can see and how you propose mitigating against them Nice to Haves • Awareness of designing services using the GOV.UK design system • Ability to recruit with users who have access needs Work Location Belfast and London with some flexibility. Working Arrangments We expect the supplier to provide a research location in Belfast which has the capability to stream sessions. No. of Specialists to Evaluate 3 Cultural Fit Criteria • Work as a team with our organisation and other suppliers • Be transparent and collaborative when making decisions • Take responsibility for their work • Share knowledge and experience with other team members • Be comfortable standing up for their discipline • Can work with clients with low technical expertise Evaluation Weighting Technical competence 50% Cultural fit 10% Price 40% Questions from Suppliers 1. Based on the following;"Working arrangements – We expect the supplier to provide a research location in Belfast which has the capability to stream sessions"Can the authority confirm if this should be an Outcome instead of looking for an Individual Specialist ? We are looking for a specialist rather than an outcome as we have the other skillsets from an agile team already. We are looking to test a user journey which has already been developed, and require the skillset of a specialist to do so. 2. Dear Sir/Madam,Please can you confirm whether or not the role will be inside IR35? The scope of this work is outside of IR35 as it is a pre-determined work package lasting 6-8 weeks. 3. Please can you confirm what level of clearance (if any) the specialist will require? SC clearance is desirable for this work. 4. What are the budgets for:- User Research- Participants recruitment- and do you expect us to provide incentives or is this something you will be providing? The budget for the work, which includes research, participant recruitment, and lab hire is up to £8,500. Incentives are included in this value and are expected to be provided by the supplier. 5. Would you consider remote testing (which can be streamed live or viewed as a recording) with people from NI living abroad? Finding people in Belfast who are planning to move is likely to be difficult. There is some flexibility in location as we understand that overseas users may be challenging to recruit. Testing with users from Northern Ireland in person is preferred to remote testing. However, we are happy to take advice from the successful supplier on the format of the research. 6. Expected contract length: Six to eight weeksDoes the above translate to up to 40 days of work? or is it two rounds (2 days) of research and however long it takes to write up report and present? The total number of days of work will consist of: the days conducting the research itself, and additional days necessary to prepare for testing and report on findings. 7. Are you envisaging 12–15 participants across two rounds of testing or 12–15 participants for each round of testing? We would like 12 to 15 participants across both rounds, with at least 6 participants attending each round. 8. By 'overseas' do you mean outside of UK or outside of Northern Ireland? You say that testing in person is preferred to remote testing – however if we are talking about people outside of the UK remote testing is likely to be the only option. Please could you clarify exactly the type of people you expect to participate in this research The functionality which we are testing is for users from Northern Ireland who now live outside the UK. We understand that these users may be challenging to recruit, so are flexible about location and type of testing. Testing with users from Northern Ireland in person is preferred to remote testing. We are happy to take advice from the successful supplier on the exact format of the research. 9. The opportunity mentions work split between NI and London. Is there any specific details around the duration, frequency or formats of the work that would be done in London for this project? The Cabinet Office team working on this project are based in London and should be involved in the planning, observation, and analysis.There are no specific requirements about the duration, frequency and format of the work to be done in London. 10. Will the cabinet office have any restrictions of access around the use of online VOIP and browser or plugin tools for meetings and sharing live -streams? If so are there any alternative preferences to mitigate risk and ensure effective communications? The preferred streaming service for observation of sessions is Google Hangouts. The supplier may use other software locally to record sessions. 11. Regarding the two rounds of user testing, is there an expectation as to how long each session will last with each participant, or would you like suggestions on a recommended approach? We will take the advice of the supplier on the recommended testing approach. 12. Providing it is achievable for the budgets you are working too, would you be open to the approach of conducting a mixture of in person user testing, as well as remotely? We are open to a mixed approach for testing. We are happy to take advice from the successful supplier on the exact format of the research.