By Herman Manson (@marklives) Design Indaba 2013 Public design projects have been getting a bad name of late and Ben Terrett, Head of Design at the GDS – The British government’s Government Digital Service (@gdsteam), wants to reverse the trend with GDS.
Terrett and his team had been tasked to make tangible his governments’ intention to transform its approach to digital delivery of public services from what government needs to what its citizens need.
By focussing on user (i.e. ‘we the people’) experience to cut red tape and speed up service delivery Terrett and the GDS is radically altering governments’ usual approach to its citizenry. Who knew government was about us rather than the political class! Terrett emphasises that the projects’ success rests on determining – and meeting – user needs. His team spends a lot of time thinking about how to make transacting with government easier and more convenient.
The first task of GDS was to launch a one-stop website at gov.uk that will eventually replace the hundreds of smaller government department sites. It means you don’t need to know what part of government handles a specific issue – you will find the information you require in a single digital space. Launched in October 2012 the site has already seen its 100 millionth user.
The new gov.uk site focuses on easy access to information, presented in a way that is relevant, easy to find and easy to digest. Transparency is important here – design can be used as much to hide as to highlight information (think small print).
The gov.uk site also strips away nonsense. It should only contain the kind information government should be telling you says Terrett – the rest you should find elsewhere. So on previous government sites citizens were informed on ‘how to identify [sea] waves’ and what to do when they get cold (‘put on a pull-over’). Information irrelevant to government’s core function is being done away with. It certainly makes government seem less controlling and domineering.
Next the site will be rolling out transactional capacity – things like obtaining power of attorney, which also presented interesting design issues for the team (it involves several people, and strips one of a lot of legal authority). Terrett purposely slowed down the online process – he doesn’t feel this is something that should be rushed. Still it will take only 20 minutes online.
Even though authority for designing all the UK governments’ digital communications have been centralised under GDS pushback hasn’t been an issue. GDS establishes guidelines and then build capacity within departments.
The GDS has published what it calls its core design principles but these could also serve as a manifesto to rethink how government approaches and processes service delivery.
1. Start with needs (user needs not government needs)
2. Do less (do what only government can do)
3. Design with data (shape the system to fit what people naturally choose to do rather than bending them to a system we’ve invented)
4. Do the hard work to make it simple
5. Iterate. Then iterate again. (test to make sure it works)
6. Build for inclusion (accessible design is good design)
7. Understand context (understand the technological and practical circumstances in which our services are used)
8. Build digital services, not websites (“Our service doesn’t begin and end at our website. It might start with a search engine and end at the post office.”)
9. Be consistent, not uniform
10. Make things open: it makes things better
Already city and national governments are visiting GDS in the hope to take home some of its design best practice. GDS isn’t fixated on the web either – mobile is already playing an important role – and Terrett says you never know what platform will be arriving next. In the meantime they are building a system people would want to use and are streamlining processes along the way.
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