--- title: "User needs" description: "What people need to know, do or understand, established through evidence and used to decide what content should exist." category: "Research and evidence" canonical: "https://contentlexicon.com/user-needs" updated: "2026-10-14" --- # User needs _Research and evidence_ > What people need to know, do or understand, established through evidence and used to decide what content should exist. User needs are what people need to know, do or understand when they come to an organisation's content or services, described from their point of view and grounded in evidence. A useful need is specific enough to guide decisions but broad enough to allow different solutions. “As a carer, I need to know whether I can claim this allowance so I can plan my finances” is a user need. “Raise awareness of our programme” is an organisational aim; it doesn't say what anyone needs from the content. The idea grew from user-centred design, which Don Norman and Stephen Draper set out in their 1986 book User Centered System Design. The familiar “As a… I want… so that…” template came from [agile software development](https://contentlexicon.com/agile), where the coach Rachel Davies devised it for user stories at the UK company Connextra in the early 2000s. The UK Government Digital Service put “Start with user needs” first in its 2012 design principles, and [content design](https://contentlexicon.com/content-design) made the user need its starting point. ## Why it matters for content User needs give content a reason to exist. They help teams decide what to include, how to structure it and when not to publish anything at all. The need might be to understand a change, compare options, explore an idea or take part in a discussion, not only to complete a transaction. Internal announcements meet staff needs too, though they are often treated as less important than public content. Needs also help with prioritisation and with difficult conversations. A request to publish something becomes easier to assess once someone asks which need it meets and what evidence shows that need exists. Primary needs should be easy to find and complete, while less common ones need appropriate routes without overwhelming everyone else. Acceptance criteria can describe what someone should understand or be able to do when the need is met, which gives a draft something to be tested against. Content has authors, and their needs matter too. A publishing system that makes accurate updates difficult will eventually harm readers, however elegant the public template. ## How AI changes the picture AI can analyse search terms, support queries, feedback and research notes to suggest patterns in user needs, which helps when the evidence runs to thousands of rows. It can organise and summarise that evidence, but it shouldn't manufacture needs from generic [personas](https://contentlexicon.com/persona) or plausible assumptions. A generated need that sounds right remains an invention until someone checks it against what people do and say. Conversational interfaces may reveal needs in people's own words, including questions that traditional navigation never anticipated. Chat logs can be rich evidence, but they need privacy safeguards and careful interpretation, since people tend to phrase requests around what they think a system can do. AI products should be evaluated against needs rather than fluency. Ask whether the system helps the person understand, explore or act in the relevant context. A fluent answer can still miss the need, and a task-completion measure may not capture an exploratory one. ## Questions people ask **Is a user need the same as a business goal?** No. Both matter, but a user need describes what a person needs to achieve. Good strategy explains the relationship between them without disguising the organisational aim as a user need. **Must every need use “As a… I need… so that…”?** The format helps by making a team name who has the need and why, but evidence and specificity matter more than the wording. Some teams write needs as the questions people ask, such as “Can I claim this if I work part time?” **Where do needs come from?** Research, search data, support questions, analytics, observation and policy or service evidence. The strongest needs draw on more than one source. **Can people state their needs directly?** Sometimes, but stated requests and underlying needs may differ. Someone asking for a downloadable [PDF](https://contentlexicon.com/pdf) may need to share information with a relative who isn't online. Combine conversation with observation and behavioural evidence. ## Learn more - [User Need Statements](https://www.nngroup.com/articles/user-need-statements/) – Sarah Gibbons's NN/g guide to writing needs as a user, a need and a goal, and to keeping solutions out of the statement. - [User Story Template: What It Is and Why It Works So Well](https://www.mountaingoatsoftware.com/agile/why-the-three-part-user-story-template-works-so-well) – Mike Cohn on the who, what and why of the agile user story and its origins at Connextra. - [Why Content Design Matters: An Interview with Sarah Richards](https://medium.com/ux-and-front-end-interviews/why-content-design-matters-an-interview-with-sarah-richards-a9ad0de3c37a) – an interview on designing around people’s needs rather than an organisation’s desire to publish; one practitioner’s perspective. Related terms: [Audience segmentation](https://contentlexicon.com/audience-segmentation), [Card sorting](https://contentlexicon.com/card-sorting), [Content brief](https://contentlexicon.com/content-brief), [Content design](https://contentlexicon.com/content-design), [Content strategy](https://contentlexicon.com/content-strategy), [Design thinking](https://contentlexicon.com/design-thinking), [Gap analysis](https://contentlexicon.com/gap-analysis), [Persona](https://contentlexicon.com/persona), [User testing](https://contentlexicon.com/user-testing), [UX](https://contentlexicon.com/ux) This page was last reviewed in October 2026.