GOV.UK
Doing less by focusing on user needs
Interaction designer Sam Wakeling explains why it's essential not to lose sight of user needs when building government services
Service design
Learning through international collaboration in New Zealand
Senior user researcher Emily Ball shares her thoughts on a recent exchange trip to New Zealand, where she saw how digital services work on govt.nz
What we mean by service outcomes and measurement
Kate Tarling continues her discussion on service design. In this post, she explains the importance of defining and measuring desired outcomes – at each stage of a service and of the service as a whole
Types and stages of services
Kate Tarling discusses the importance of identifying the intent of a service and the stages involved in delivering it, from start to end
Building internal systems v providing services
As we go about redesigning public services to be clearer, simpler and faster, we sometimes hear things like, ‘civil servants are users too.’ And of course they are.
The hidden benefits of user centred design
Delivery teams across the Home Office spend a lot of time observing and testing ideas with users. It’s an essential component of user centred design and helps us understand if our ideas work.
Discovering the value of access needs research
Chris has worked in UK Visas & Immigration (UKVI) since 2003. Aspasia, a user researcher working on visa applications, invited Chris to observe a research session. Together they went to visit John, who has a degenerative eye condition that’s left …
Creating a common language to describe services
When we build teams to work on services, the individuals may have never worked together before, and may have different ways of describing their work.
The power of pictures in service design
In October 2015 the Syrian Refugee Resettlement Service had got off to great start. User researchers had done some excellent discovery work to paint the general picture of the existing Syrian refugee resettlement process in the UK.
How will this new shiny thing deliver value?
As a user researcher working on immigration case working, I was recently asked ‘How will this new shiny thing you’re designing deliver value?’