Increasing engagement with democracy through UX
Experience | Consumer Goods
Results
1,055
people from across the UK, including those with a range of abilities and disabilities, provided feedback.
40%
of people surveyed wanted to be more involved in democracy but didn’t know where to start.
40
in-depth telephone interviews were conducted to explore motivations, constraints, and requirements.
UK Parliament partnered with GAIN to enhance public engagement with democracy by improving the accessibility and usability of its website.
GAIN partnered with the UK Parliament to modernise its brand, creating a cohesive yet distinctive identity that enhances digital communication and accessibility across all departments.
Public engagement was improved through extensive research, including surveys, interviews, and stakeholder workshops, GAIN identified key barriers to engagement, such as complex language and perceptions of elitism. A set of six personas was developed to represent a diverse range of users, alongside mental models and user journeys to inform design improvements. The research highlighted a strong public interest in local and national issues, though many felt uncertain about how to get involved. The insights gained were used to refine the website’s features, making it easier for users to navigate, understand Parliament’s role, and take meaningful action.
About our client
UK Parliament, one of the most important websites in the United Kingdom, was looking to increase public engagement with democracy. They believe (and GAIN agrees!) that the easier the public can access and use Parliament, the better it is for everyone. UK Parliament worked with GAIN to produce personas representing the general public to first understand their users.
What our client wanted
Understand UK Parliament’s website users and their requirements, desires and motivations for engaging with democracy
Review and update existing personas to incorporate findings of the research
Produce mental models and user journeys to be carried through into the design phase of the project
Ultimately increase engagement with democracy
The work
We gathered feedback from a total of 1,055 people from all over the UK, with a range of abilities & disabilities
The new site was developed to cater to occasional users, without hindering frequent users
From interviews, we found that politicians and MPs were seen as elitist, lacking diversity, London-centric and that the language being used is too complicated
The set of 6 personas reflected the information from the interviews with wide-ranging understanding levels and with local to global interests in politics
Our mental models demonstrated that engagements generally start off with a trigger in a person’s local area, fact finding is important as well as knowing what others think about the issues
In the ideation workshop, we developed areas that allowed people to see what is happening in their local area, profiles of their MP, a way to follow what MPs are doing and a tool that directs users on getting help with issues based on a topic search
The contextual enquiry demonstrated that most people didn’t understand the purpose and value of Parliament, yet those who are engaged generally care deeply about an issue affecting them
What we delivered
A review of existing research, including a trend analysis of the monthly Parliament survey
3 stakeholder workshops and 16 individual stakeholder interviews to gather valuable input from internal teams representing both houses; encouraging them to engage in the process
Two online surveys (one sent to users of the Parliament site, and the other sent to the Bunnyfield database) to provide quantitative data and to inform the direction of the in-depth interviews
Conducted 6 days of contextual research to engage with Members, staff and the public. These took place in Westminster, Leeds, Newcastle and an event in Portcullis House (London), one of the days included 6 depth interviews with students.
Carried out 40 in-depth telephone interviews, to explore participants’ motivations, constraints and requirements
Reviewed existing personas and created new personas based on the findings of the research in an engaging analysis workshop with the client
Produced a mental model and user journey for the primary persona, complete with sketches for empathy
Conducted an ideation workshop to help the team start thinking about solutions
Presented findings back to the wider Parliament team and stakeholders from both houses
The results
The majority of people don’t know the difference between Parliament and government
Around 40% of people surveyed wanted to be more involved but didn’t know where to start, and many felt like they couldn’t make a difference
People care about topics affecting their area, themselves, headline topics, professional topics etc.
Working with GAIN on the discovery of a new parliament.uk website has been extremely busy and very fruitful!
Kheira Belkacem
User Researcher, UK Parliament
About our client
UK Parliament, one of the most important websites in the United Kingdom, was looking to increase public engagement with democracy. They believe (and GAIN agrees!) that the easier the public can access and use Parliament, the better it is for everyone. UK Parliament worked with GAIN to produce personas representing the general public to first understand their users.
What our client wanted
Understand UK Parliament’s website users and their requirements, desires and motivations for engaging with democracy
Review and update existing personas to incorporate findings of the research
Produce mental models and user journeys to be carried through into the design phase of the project
Ultimately increase engagement with democracy
The work
We gathered feedback from a total of 1,055 people from all over the UK, with a range of abilities & disabilities
The new site was developed to cater to occasional users, without hindering frequent users
From interviews, we found that politicians and MPs were seen as elitist, lacking diversity, London-centric and that the language being used is too complicated
The set of 6 personas reflected the information from the interviews with wide-ranging understanding levels and with local to global interests in politics
Our mental models demonstrated that engagements generally start off with a trigger in a person’s local area, fact finding is important as well as knowing what others think about the issues
In the ideation workshop, we developed areas that allowed people to see what is happening in their local area, profiles of their MP, a way to follow what MPs are doing and a tool that directs users on getting help with issues based on a topic search
The contextual enquiry demonstrated that most people didn’t understand the purpose and value of Parliament, yet those who are engaged generally care deeply about an issue affecting them
What we delivered
A review of existing research, including a trend analysis of the monthly Parliament survey
3 stakeholder workshops and 16 individual stakeholder interviews to gather valuable input from internal teams representing both houses; encouraging them to engage in the process
Two online surveys (one sent to users of the Parliament site, and the other sent to the Bunnyfield database) to provide quantitative data and to inform the direction of the in-depth interviews
Conducted 6 days of contextual research to engage with Members, staff and the public. These took place in Westminster, Leeds, Newcastle and an event in Portcullis House (London), one of the days included 6 depth interviews with students.
Carried out 40 in-depth telephone interviews, to explore participants’ motivations, constraints and requirements
Reviewed existing personas and created new personas based on the findings of the research in an engaging analysis workshop with the client
Produced a mental model and user journey for the primary persona, complete with sketches for empathy
Conducted an ideation workshop to help the team start thinking about solutions
Presented findings back to the wider Parliament team and stakeholders from both houses
The results
The majority of people don’t know the difference between Parliament and government
Around 40% of people surveyed wanted to be more involved but didn’t know where to start, and many felt like they couldn’t make a difference
People care about topics affecting their area, themselves, headline topics, professional topics etc.
Public engagement was improved through extensive research, including surveys, interviews, and stakeholder workshops, GAIN identified key barriers to engagement, such as complex language and perceptions of elitism. A set of six personas was developed to represent a diverse range of users, alongside mental models and user journeys to inform design improvements. The research highlighted a strong public interest in local and national issues, though many felt uncertain about how to get involved. The insights gained were used to refine the website’s features, making it easier for users to navigate, understand Parliament’s role, and take meaningful action.
