At Ad Hoc, we believe that shared technology platforms are often a critical part of government digital modernization efforts.

Fundamentally, research is about helping people make better decisions, and it should be an integral part of how any team develops products and services.

Even with accessibility specialists at our side, there are additional ways accessibility newcomers can and should prepare to run research with assistive technology users.

Through our trauma-informed research practice, we're working to help agencies better understand trauma. From there, we can help them improve how they meet individuals' needs by offering assistance without triggering existing wounds or creating new ones.

Human-centered design can be hugely beneficial to API documentation and the developers who reference it. Here are some ways to ensure the technical content is clear and concise.

To meet the needs of internal customers, Ad Hoc’s platform service design team takes a service design approach to continuously gather feedback and use that information to improve user interactions and experiences with the VSP program.

Reframing the research step and using it to bring stakeholders’ concerns to the forefront instead of pushing past them can turn research skeptics into research advocates. We call this approach Research as Diplomacy.

Maturing a process is not easy, even if there is interest. It’s incumbent on human-centered design practitioners to recognize where an agency is with their practice, so they can identify how to help them grow.

Placeholder content can trip up users and give you poorer results. When testing new designs with users, realistic content is key to convey the purpose and use of your designs