Awarded to Meister.works

Start date: Monday 11 January 2021
Value: £30,000
Company size: SME

Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy

User Research Participants for the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy

1 Incomplete application

1 SME, 0 large

4 Completed applications

4 SME, 0 large

• Published: Tuesday 29 December 2020
• Deadline for asking questions: Tuesday 5 January 2021 at 11:59pm GMT
• Closing date for applications: Tuesday 12 January 2021 at 11:59pm GMT

Overview

• Summary of the work: The project is to develop a new digital service for BEIS Net Zero Directorates that will help streamline access to funding for stakeholders and design application processes around user needs. BEIS Digital require access to user research/testing participants for the alpha phase.
• Location: London
• Research dates: Mid-End January 2021 to Mid-End March 2021, plus option to extend.
• Organisation the work is for: Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy

About the work

About the research

• Description of your participants: Types of stakeholders/businesses should be: ; ; Who have applied for government funding and had it approved when developing innovations to improve industrial energy efficiency/decarbonisation between 2015-2020 ; ; Who have or are in the process of applying for funding (private/gov) to improve industrial energy efficiency/decarbonisation and have had no success currently ; ; Who have applied for any private funding (investors, bank loans) and had it approved to develop an innovation to improve industrial energy efficiency/decarbonisation between 2015-2020 ; ; Who have never applied in the past but would consider applying for government funding to improve industrial energy efficiency/decarbonisation; ; Participant sample should be: ; ; An equal mixture of SME and Large businesses, from across the UK; ; Primary users in Businesses to focus on are: ; ; CEOs/ MDs, Finance Directors, Operations managers, Facility managers ; ; [Additional] users/stakeholders involved in the process: ; ; Executive members, Development team managers, Other Specialist managers ; ; 8) Representatives of non-business stakeholders (e.g. academic institutions, research institutions, charities) who have or would consider applying for government funding in this area ; ; 9) The sectors these organisations will operate in ; ; Advanced CCUS ; Advanced Nuclear ; Bio-energy ; Built Environment ; Disruptive Technology ; Greenhouse Gas Removal ; Hydrogen ; Industry ; Offshore Wind ; Smart Energy & Energy Storage
• Assisted digital and accessibility requirements: We would like to include participants with: ; ; Use of assistive technologies (screen readers etc) to access digital services ; ; Low level of digital skill and therefore requiring support to access digital services ; ; Cognitive and/or learning disabilities ; ; Motor skills impairments ; ; Visual impairments ; ; Auditory disabilities ; ; We are also looking to include those with different degrees of digital competency and the digitally excluded (including those who chose not to engage with government services via digital channels, and those who struggle with digital connectivity).
• Research plan: We would like to use a variety of research methods, including: ; ; • Usability testing ; • Accessibility testing ; • 1-to-1 interviews (structured/semi-structured) ; • Focus groups ; • Observation/contextual enquiry ; • Workshops ; ; Participants must be willing to be available for any further research to support the project. ; ; Participants must be willing to sign a consent form prior to user research sessions. ; ; Incentive Value - An arrange amount will be agreed with Product Manager.
• Research location: Due to COVID-19 research will be done remotely. However, once it is safe to so research will likely to take place throughout the UK.
• Number of research rounds: 16-20
• Number of participants a round: Minimum 5 participants per round ; ; The project team will inform participants of any changes prior to sessions
• How often research will happen: To be confirmed when User Researchers have been appointed. ; ; It is likely this will be every one-two weeks over a period of 8-12 weeks ; No evening or weekend research is required.

Additional information

Skills and experience

Buyers will use the essential and nice-to-have skills and experience to help them evaluate suppliers’ technical competence.

• Essential skills and experience:
  • Experience of, and ability to regularly recruit participants for government services
  • Experience of, and ability to recruit participants with low digital literacy or confidence
  • Experience of, and ability to recruit participants with specific accessibility needs or requirements
  • Experience of, and ability to recruit participants using non-digital channels to ensure coverage of those with low digital literacy
  • Ability to store participant data securely and demonstrate compliance with GDPR
  • Ability to mitigate the risks of participants not showing up for research sessions or meeting the required criteria
  • Experience of, and ability to recruit users that fit the target participant audience

How suppliers will be evaluated

All suppliers will be asked to provide a written proposal.

• How many suppliers to evaluate: 3
• Proposal criteria:
  • Estimated timeframes for recruitment
  • Approach to recruiting specialist participants
  • Breakdown of recruitment costs (per participant)
  • Approach to identifying and managing risks
  • Contingency plans to ensure sufficient recruitment
  • Approach to recruiting participants who are not based in the UK or who do not speak English as a first language
  • Method for producing a representative ample of participants via use of customer provided contact lists
  • Demonstrate a method to identify participants with low-digital confidence
  • Screen to ensure suitable participants
  • Provide profiles and information for selected participants in each round
  • Approach to managing and scheduling participants
• Evaluation weighting:

  Technical competence

  50%

  Availability

  20%

  Price

  30%

Questions asked by suppliers

No questions have been answered yet