Planning
Last Updated: March 28, 2025
Remote moderated user research is the most common type of research conducted at VA. Planning your research is an essential first step. This guide walks you through defining your goals, selecting the right research methods, organizing sessions, and creating a safe, comfortable environment for participants. You'll also get tips on writing a conversation guide, recruiting participants, and ensuring your design is accessible before testing.
Research plan
Use this research plan template to guide you through decisions about your research:
What are your research goals?
What methodology will you use? (More on that below.)
Who do you want to talk to?
What is your timing?
Who will do what during the sessions?
Your research plan is not just a document but a collaborative tool that guides your study and serves as a reference for project teams, research, and leadership. It's a living document that you can customize to suit your needs. If your team uses research issues or epics, you can link your research-plan.md file to them. Remember, discussing your research plan with your team is key to its success.
Research methodologies
User research is essential for understanding users' needs, behaviors, and motivations, and it involves various methods to gather insights. Here's an overview of some common user research methods:
Stakeholder and user interviews - appropriate for generative research.
Contextual inquiry - appropriate for generative research.
Card sorting - appropriate for generative and evaluative research, depending on the study design.
Usability testing - appropriate for evaluative research.
Learn more about research methods.
If you have complex questions to dig into, using a variety of research methods can help you start answering them. Combining methods like interviews and observation activities can provide a more comprehensive view of the problem space.
Conversation guide
Once you've completed your research plan, write a conversation guide. Use this conversation guide template as a starting point. Generally, the moderator should write the conversation guide.
A conversation guide is a script that organizes how you'd like each user research session to go. The moderator should plan to use it during each session and read directly from it. Feel free to go off-script and follow the natural flow of the conversation.
These are most commonly used in moderated research sessions but can be adapted as instructions given to the user in unmoderated sessions if necessary.
Pro tips:
When drafting questions, write down every question you can think of and get input from all team members. Organize later.
When organizing, start with high-level and general questions, then get more specific.
Always begin with an intro that sets the stage (you can start with the intro included in the template).
Get your prototype ready
If part of your plan includes showing participants a prototype, have the thing you're testing ready and reviewed by the Collaboration Cycle a week (minimum) before starting your research sessions. This is typically a midpoint review. This ensures that what you’re showing Veterans meets the VA.gov quality standards.
Recruiting participants
OCTO has a contract with Perigean Technologies to help us recruit, screen, gather consent forms, and schedule research sessions with Veterans. To start recruiting participants for your study, refer to the research checklist and recruiting participants.
Create a safe space for participants
Although we may not intend it, research sessions inherently create a power dynamic where the moderator is in control: participants don't know what questions will be asked or what tasks will be given, and the moderator represents the VA. Before you start your research study, consider ways to create a psychologically safe space that shifts the power dynamic in favor of the participant.
Get an accessibility review
You can request an accessibility review from the Accessibility Digital Experience (ADE) Team on Slack using their @accessibility-de handle in #accessibility-help.
Expert advice on effective and ethical research design for disabilities and assistive technology.
Ensure research methods and conversation guide are appropriate for our participant population.
Limit the number of observers
Observing research is important for product owners, developers, and other stakeholders and teammates. However, seeing a dozen faceless and nameless boxes on screen can be intimidating or triggering. To balance the desire to include observers with participants' emotional needs:
Limit VA attendance to 5-6, including moderator and notetaker.
The notetaker and moderator should be considered minimum VA attendance for most sessions.
Observers should then be no more than 3-4 per session.
Empowered participants are more comfortable, and more comfortable participants make your data better.
Help and feedback
Get help from the Platform Support Team in Slack.
Submit a feature idea to the Platform.