Blog

How many user interviews does it take to make 249 evidence driven recommendations? 

Emma Davis
Team sat round table looking at presentation on a screen

I was recently asked to try to pull together some numbers to illustrate the work we’ve carried out as a team. 

I found out that in 2022 we identified (and often validated) 570 user needs, and made 249 recommendations, for 19 different services. That’s a fair number of practical outputs that the clients we worked with can now put to use. 

In order to get to that point, we had to carry out a significant amount of qualitative research with users, including:

  • …engaging 433 participants in qualitative research activities
  • …conducting 309 interviews and obser-views and 115 stakeholder interviews
  • … carrying out 24 usability testing sessions and 43 concept feedback sessions
  • …facilitating 25 workshops.

Of course, this is only a snapshot of the research we have completed, and doesn’t include the many more respondents to surveys, card sorts and tree tests we put out last year. 

It’s really easy, when you’re caught up in your day-to-day activities or focussed on one project, not to appreciate the wider picture of all the work that’s been happening, so it was very welcome to be able to take a step back and look at what we achieved as a team last year. 

It was definitely enough to keep us all busy last year  – it will be interesting to see how 2023 compares.


Related Case Studies

User research about grey literature and research repositories

Knowledge and Library services (which were part of Health Education England and, as of 1st April 2023, became part of…

User research for the NHS Knowledge and Library Hub service

The NHS Knowledge and Library Hub connects NHS staff and learners to high quality knowledge and evidence resources in one…

More from the Author

Emma Davis

User researcher

Emma Davis 15/05/2023

In-person vs remote: insights from my latest workshop

I recently left the comfort of my home office to…

Emma Davis 13/04/2023

How many user interviews does it take to make 249 evidence driven recommendations? 

I was recently asked to try to pull together some…

Emma Davis 26/01/2023

How does user research on a live service compare with discoveries?

I’ve been lucky enough recently to have spent a few…