BBC user types research

Creative data visualisation will help support staff with better systems and tools

Insights into how the BBC’s diverse workforce collaborates, coordinates and communicates at work is pivotal to ensuring positive user experiences. We were hired to conduct user research to further this understanding.

Challenge

Our brief was to provide user research insights into the needs, behaviours and environmental factors experienced the BBC workforce. We knew that the user types research would generate a lot of data, so from the outset we saw creative data visualisation as key to communicating insights effectively.

The completed surveys revealed different user patterns and categories. We selected people for a diary study, and then interviewed a subset. After quantitative data analysis, our creative design team got to work, visualising 5 user types with maps.

Benefits

Through our creative data visualisation, user types and maps enable the BBC Enterprise Systems IT team to rethink the use cases in particular business areas.

Dr Karen Yunqiu Li of the BBC says, “We used it as a conversational piece to show people the starting point of multiple use cases, that they can build on top of the modes of working.”

Paul Thorpe, our Creative Services Director, summarises, “We wanted to produce designs that would enhance the data findings, make the 5 user types meaningful and easy to communicate, and capture the imaginations of those with the power to implement change.”