The challenge

Client: Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia

Duration of the project: 8 months

The Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia (SURS), the main provider and coordinator of national statistics in Slovenia, wanted to learn more about their users and improve their website stat.si, which publishes news related to statistical research published in the si.stat database.

In the past, SURS had already been collecting data on its users, obtained through an annual satisfaction survey, but subject-matter writers of the releases did not have enough detailed information about their readers. They were interested in how news readers read, what they do with the obtained data, what their understanding of statistics is, and how useful various ways of displaying data are.

What we did

We started by identifying the needs of release authors and collecting questions to which they needed answers, that served as a starting point for the research. Together with the project team, we conducted 11 in-depth interviews to identify key needs and goals of stat.si users. We used these to create personas, archetypes of users with different needs.

We then further developed personas with quantitative research and used them to co-design a document with guidelines for writing.
We tested and developed personas and guidelines for news writing together with a small group of subject-matter experts and upgraded according to their needs.

Throughout the project, we involved various stakeholders who participated in the development and testing to improve the project results.

Outputs & Outcomes

The key result of the project were guidelines for writing releases, which included suggestions based on the existing guidelines for writing at SURS and the identified needs of stat.si release readers.

The outcome of the project was increased internal project communication and improved awareness of user needs throughout the organisation. By co-creating personas, we achieved a shared understanding of stat.si users and supported content methodologists in using personas when writing news.

Additionally the effect of the project was also to acquaint SURS employees with new methods and tools for co-creation and effective management of co-creation processes.

We have prepared a short booklet* where you will find an overview of the design thinking mindset, process and a selection of methods and tools. *Only in Slovenian for now.