It can be challenging for federal programs to recruit people to participate in user research. They need to follow the privacy and security regulations and paperwork reduction laws designed to protect the public, but that adds time and complexity to the process. And it can lead to teams doing less user research with the people their websites serve.
To create a solution to this challenge, USAGov and the 10x program, both part of GSA’s Technology Transformation Services (TTS), partnered to develop a user research recruitment page at usa.gov/user-research.
The page launched in February 2024 and has attracted hundreds of sign-ups. It invites anyone over 18 to join a pool of participants interested in helping product teams test their websites. Teams can select participants who match the demographics they’re looking for, including age, education, gender, race, and more. Participants are compensated, typically through a gift card payment.
The groundwork
10x began designing the page and its recruitment process by studying the user research needs of several federal product teams. 10x created research participation screener questions and submitted them to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for approval under the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA). To ensure the public’s information would be protected following the Privacy Act and related regulations and policies,10x consulted with GSA’s technology law and privacy experts.
A home for the recruitment page
As the “Federal Front Door” to government information, services, programs, and benefits, it made sense for the USAGov program to host the research recruitment page.
- USA.gov is an official and trustworthy government site with strong branding.
- With the site’s broad reach, research teams have a greater opportunity to connect with a more diverse and underserved population.
- Hosting on USA.gov eliminated the need to create a new dedicated website.
- USA.gov’s content management system uses U.S. Web Design System (USWDS) components, creating a flexible structure for designing the recruitment page.
- The USAGov program offers opportunities to use other channels in the future, including a recruitment page in Spanish on USAGov en Español.
Expanding into the future
The recruitment page invites everyday people from diverse backgrounds to help shape the future of government websites. And it gives teams the ability to focus their time and energy on interacting with research participants rather than on the process of getting permission to do the work. This can help give them the capacity to do user research more often.
In addition to creating recruitment opportunities in Spanish, the team is also looking into expanding to Arabic, Korean, and Mandarin Chinese. Plans also include recruiting more specific audiences for studies. USAGov has used the recruitment page to gather research on consumer complaints, and it’s being expanded for use by other TTS programs. With growing interest from agencies across the federal government, there is also potential to make this research recruitment tool available beyond TTS and GSA.
