Discovery & current journeys
Understand needs, context, barriers and workarounds before deciding what to build. Map the journey across websites, letters, phone calls, physical locations and support.
Public services
Services people can understand and use.
Behavioural research for user-centred design, from early discovery to improving a live service.
FabUX helps public-sector teams and their delivery partners understand what people need, where they struggle and what would make a practical difference.
We work across Scotland and the UK. Remote research gives geographic spread; face-to-face sessions bring depth where environment, language, accessibility or physical interaction matters.
Where we help
Evidence for the next service decision.
Prototype & usability testing
Watch people attempt realistic tasks. Find where forms, navigation, decisions and handovers become difficult, then give teams evidence for the next iteration.
Live service review
Combine observed use with existing research, analytics and support evidence. Understand why people struggle and prioritise improvements to a service already in use.
Content & comprehension
Test whether people can find, understand and act on guidance, eligibility information, forms and correspondence. Clear wording has to work in the situation where it is used.
Inclusive & accessibility research
Include disabled participants, assistive technology users and people with varied digital confidence. Adapt recruitment and sessions to access needs. Usability research complements a technical accessibility audit; it does not replace one.
Physical services & visitor journeys
Research the points where digital and physical experiences meet, including public buildings, visitor centres, signage, interpretation and face-to-face support.
How we work
Natural behaviour first. Careful questions afterwards.
We let people attempt realistic tasks without requiring a running commentary. Retrospective protocol means revisiting specific moments afterwards to explore what they expected, understood or found difficult.
Observation and recall are considered together, with the limits of each made clear. Eye tracking adds visual evidence when it helps answer the research question.
We plan participation, consent, recording and information handling with care. People should know what taking part involves, who will see the material and how to pause or stop.
Research coverage
Scotland and UK-wide, with local depth.
We’re experienced in arranging face-to-face research wherever it is needed, including hiring facilities and suitable local venues in cities and remote communities. We can blend this with remote sessions for geographic spread, across Scotland and the UK, including Inverness, Glasgow and Edinburgh.
Our Highlands and Islands capability includes specialist recruitment and fluent Gaelic-speaking moderators. We build the mix around the people a service needs to reach.
We run face-to-face research in central Stornoway, with comfortable spaces for participants and separate rooms for the research team.
Our island base brings local knowledge and access to people who can be harder to reach through conventional recruitment. The research question determines where we work.
Direct or with your delivery partner
A focused research package within a wider programme.
FabUX can work directly with your team or provide a defined work package for a lead agency. This can cover recruitment, participant incentives, moderation, facilities and analysis, with scope and responsibilities agreed at the start.
You receive observed evidence, clear findings, limitations and prioritised recommendations that your team can use. For a wider programme, we agree how the findings fit into its existing research and reporting.
AI-assisted services
Understand the human side of AI.
If AI is part of a service, research needs to examine how people interpret its answers, recognise uncertainty, correct mistakes and reach a person when needed. We can include this within discovery or live-service research, or run a focused study with your delivery partner.
Related services
Continue the investigation.
Connect public-service research with specialist expertise in the journeys and environments people use.
- User Research & Usability Testing
Understand people’s needs, test real tasks and find where content, access or confidence breaks down.
- Highlands & Islands Research
Rural, island and Gaelic-language research, including specialist work packages within wider UK programmes.
- Visitor Experience Reviews
Understand how people actually experience places, from arrival to departure and later recall.
- Interpretation & Exhibition Readability
Understand what visitors read, skip, misunderstand and remember across interpretive experiences.
What does your team need to understand?
Tell us about the service, the decisions ahead and the people you need to reach.