Methodology
Our Research Methodology
Our research is built from published rules and standards, not from testing operators' live products or surveying players. That makes it repeatable and checkable, and it also sets clear limits on what our pages can claim.
The six steps
- Read. For each stage of a player journey, we collect the rules that apply in Great Britain, Ontario, US states such as New Jersey, and Australia, together with W3C accessibility standards and public design guidance such as the GOV.UK Design System.
- Map. We lay out the stage as a player experiences it: what they are trying to do, the screens they meet and the decisions they make.
- Test. We test our own templates and tools in browsers, with a keyboard and at phone widths, and check our own pages against WCAG 2.2 level AA criteria with automated and scripted tests, as our accessibility statement describes.
- Annotate. We mark the friction to look for, the support moments that help and the accessibility checks for each stage.
- Compare. We set the rules for each market side by side, so teams can see where one design will not fit every market.
- Publish. We publish with every source dated, and correct errors when readers or our own rechecks find them.
What counts as evidence
| Evidence | How we use it | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Regulator rules and official guidance | Quoted or summarized, with the date read | Gambling Commission limit rules; AGCO Registrar's Standards |
| Published standards | Quoted for exact criteria | WCAG 2.2 success criteria |
| Regulator reports and case records | Summarized as context | FTC dark patterns report; CMA online gambling case |
| Design guidance | Used for practical patterns | GOV.UK Design System; W3C tutorials |
| Worked examples | Invented to show a pattern, always labeled | Example screens and wording on each page |
What our pages do not claim
- No measured drop-off rates, conversion figures or player behavior data. Where design mockups suggested such numbers, we removed them.
- No claim that a design is compliant. Rules are summarized for designers, and teams must confirm requirements with their own compliance and legal advisers.
- No findings about named operators.
Keeping pages current
Each page shows its publication and update dates. When a cited rule changes, or a reader reports an error with a source, we recheck the page and change the update date only if the content changes. Our data sources page lists how we choose and date sources, and the editorial policy covers corrections.