We helped Torfaen County Council make their digital inclusion services in the Gwent area more effective. We did this by focusing on underserved groups of people who didn’t think these services were for them.
We started by running assumption mapping and expectation-setting sessions with our stakeholders, and wrote hypotheses based on our previous work.
Our research plan was deliberately written to prove (and disprove) those hypotheses as quickly as possible, so we could focus on the most pressing gaps in our knowledge.
There was a strong place-based component to our work. Because digitally excluded groups rely on physical touchpoints, we made geographic maps of access points like libraries, compiling KPIs for each one as well as visiting several in person.
We made user personas that reflected the deep place-based differences in behaviour and attitudes across the region. This way, Torfaen can make informed decisions about the service offering.