This document discusses user needs in the context of government digital services. It emphasizes that understanding user needs should be the bedrock of service design and that user needs come from people's lived experiences rather than being customized for a specific project or department. Realizing user needs involves contextual research to understand what people currently do and using methodologies like Indi Young's Mental Models to standardize maps of user needs and how organizations respond to them. Words used to describe needs matter, and needs should be stated from the user's perspective and in a way that is understandable to them.
13. user needs are stable
the jobs people need to do when they
have to interact with government
don’t change much over time.
14. how we meet those needs
is less stable.
policy, services, technology.
15. user needs come from the
lived experience of real
people.
they are not customised to
a project or a department
16. And so these men of Hindustan disputed loud and long,
Each in his own opinion, exceeding stiff and strong,
Though each was partly in the right
And all were in the wrong.
17. "We have to remember that
what we observe is not
nature in itself, but nature
exposed to our method of
questioning."
- Werner Heisenberg