Service Design for Government Improvement

Civil servants deserve good UX too. But most internal government tools treat users like an afterthought. We focus obsessively on citizen-facing services. GOV.UK is world-class. Digital services win awards for user experience. Then civil servants log into their internal systems and it's like stepping back 15 years. Clunky interfaces. Multi-step processes for simple tasks. Systems that fight users instead of helping them. We recently worked on a facilities management transformation where internal staff had to log maintenance jobs, manage third-party suppliers, and track finance across thousands of locations. The previous system made basic tasks needlessly complex. Staff spent more time wrestling with the tool than solving the actual problem. What good internal UX actually requires: → Design thinking applied to staff workflows, not just citizen journeys  → Understanding how people actually work, not how process maps say they should  → Making common tasks simple, even if it means more complexity behind the scenes The result was seamless processes for internal staff to log jobs, get suppliers paid efficiently, and manage complaints better. Good UX isn't just for citizens.  When internal tools are well-designed, staff work faster, make fewer errors, and focus on value instead of fighting systems. The best digital transformation improves life for everyone who touches the service, not just the end user. What's the worst internal tool you've had to use daily? #UserExperience #GovTech #DigitalTransformation

India’s Big Step in Digital Governance: UX4G Design System The Government of India has launched UX4G, a common design system to make all government apps and websites look, feel, and work in the same smooth way. Why it’s important • Ready tools for designers & developers → Figma kits and code libraries available to use instantly. • Easy for everyone → Built with accessibility rules (GIGW) so people with different abilities can use it. • Faster rollouts → No need to reinvent the wheel for every ministry—same design blocks can be reused. How it compares globally • India (UX4G) → Citizen-first, multilingual, inclusive. • UK (GOV.UK) → Famous for simplicity and accessibility. • USA (USWDS) → Great documentation and widely used across federal sites. What this means India now has its own global-standard design system that will help: • Make govt websites/apps more user-friendly & consistent • Save time & money in development • Provide seamless digital services to citizens Check it out on Figma Community: https://lnkd.in/gaue2drs Explore here: https://www.ux4g.gov.in/ #UX4G #DesignSystem #DigitalIndia #UIDesign #UXDesign #GovTech #Accessibility #InclusiveDesign #ServiceDesign #UXResearch #DigitalTransformation #PublicSectorInnovation #UserExperience #UIDevelopment #GovernmentDesign

Many public services don’t have a participation problem; they have a power-sharing problem. Most “engagement” invites people to comment on decisions already made. That’s not participation, it’s input without influence. If communities can’t shape the brief, pick priorities, or decide trade-offs, we’re still doing to, not with. Swap consultation events for co-design cycles: strengths - insights - priorities - decisions - actions. After delivering over 70 co-design events for Start Something Good on countless topics, we’ve also found that this isn’t just a process, it’s also an invaluable way to build understanding, relationships, and trust. If you’re running a consultation exercise in the near future, try a co-design sprint instead

This could fix India’s government app experience. UX4G Design System 2.0 just launched. The Government of India has launched the UX4G Design System - a unified framework to make all government apps and websites consistent, accessible, and user-friendly. This is part of the Digital India Programme, implemented by the National e-Governance Division under MeitY. Here’s what makes this significant: 1) Ready-to-use resources Figma kits and code libraries available for designers and developers. No need to start from scratch for every government project. 2) Accessibility first Built for inclusivity and GIGW compliance. Government services should work for everyone, including people with disabilities. 3) Consistency across ministries Faster, standardized rollouts across different government departments. Citizens get familiar interfaces regardless of which ministry’s app they’re using. 4) Open source approach Available to the entire design and development community, not just government teams. The goal is clear: enhance user accessibility, promote consistency, and empower product teams with modern UI/UX practices. If executed well, this could transform how citizens interact with government services - from tax filing to passport applications. Having used various government apps that feel completely different from each other, a unified design system makes perfect sense. Kudos to the team behind this initiative.

🇱🇰Why Sri Lanka Needs a Centralized UX Design Framework ? As Sri Lanka accelerates its digital transformation journey, we must ask: Are our digital services truly designed for the people who use them? From digital ID and GovPay to LankaQR and Data Exchange Platforms, Sri Lanka is investing heavily in public digital infrastructure. But without a centralized UX design framework, we risk creating fragmented, inconsistent, and confusing user experiences across government platforms. So what is a centralized UX framework? It’s more than a style guide. It’s a shared set of design principles, UI components, and accessibility standards—applied across all government digital services. Think of it as a digital language that every platform speaks fluently, regardless of which ministry or agency builds it. Why it matters for Sri Lanka A centralized UX framework promotes consistent and accessible services, speeds up development through reusable components, ensures inclusive design for all citizens, builds trust through familiar interfaces, and supports efficient public spending by reducing duplication across agencies. The Urgent Need Sri Lanka has already laid the groundwork for digital transformation. But for services to truly work for the people, we need a national UX framework 💎 now—coordinated by ICTA, the Digital PMO, or the future Government CTO Office. This is not a “nice to have”—it’s a critical foundation for achieving our $15 billion digital economy target by 2030 and for making government services equitable, accessible, and efficient for every citizen. Dr. Hans Wijayasuriya Eranga Weeraratne #SriLankaDigitalTransformation #UXSL

Government is incredibly fragmented. And almost every experience shows that. No step in a service journey feels like another, and users never know what to expect behind the next click. Trust and consistency matter and are intertwined. That’s why, 1 year ago, in early December 2024, the #DigitaleDachmarke was launched—a cross-government identity and design system. It’s a big, 4-part plaster to patch things together. It’s also there to fight Conway’s Law. Organisations tend to externalise their internal structures and create a separate visual identity for each initiative, rather than the state speaking with one voice. The cross-gov’t identity and #designSystem consists of the following 4 elements: → Header: a narrow line at the top identifies official government websites → Word mark: a modern interpretation of the federal eagle, representing all federal levels → Domain name: the domain suffix .gov.de identifies the gov’t organisation as the source → Design system: KERN UX-Standard provides a toolkit for designing new services Since April, a small team at DigitalService has been supporting the Bundesministerium für Digitales und Staatsmodernisierung in figuring out how to operationalise and improve the identity system. Anne Ludwig and Lena Frank shouldered most of the work. I had the honour and joy to work closely with them. In the first few months, our team conducted 30 interviews with service owners of the piloting services, interested service teams and the initiative’s cross-gov’t coordination group. We learned tons in these conversations and collected numerous insights, questions, and ideas for improvement. After discovering their blog posts, we also spoke with international experts, including colleagues doing similar work at Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and Government Digital Service. They generously shared what they have done over the past few years. They even demoed the custom tools they built and patiently answered our many questions. Their #WorkingInTheOpen approach allowed us to accelerate our thinking, and we were in absolute awe after the exchange calls. Today, 147 online services and websites across all levels of government are already using the new identity and design system. The teams behind dozens more have expressed their interest. 50 .gov.de subdomains are assigned, and others are in the queue. As our team listened, observed, and processed the many inputs, we started getting itchy. After mapping the as-is and drafting a potential to-be application process for service owners, we developed further artefacts to test ideas. With the help of Tito, we built a rapid prototype of a new landing page for the new identity and design system. We also made further mockups of redesigned unified service flows. We brought these to State Secretaries and other senior leaders to inform them about the work. Today, we run another cross-gov’t session to help more public servants unify their service journey. It’s much needed.

For 30 years, digital government progress mostly meant digitising processes, starting from forms → services → events → proactive services. Agentic systems change the abstraction layer again. We are moving from software that civil servants use to systems that participate in governance work itself. The key shift is not that AI writes code. The key shift is that implementation becomes continuous and operational, closer to policy execution than IT delivery. In the public sector, that matters enormously. Governments historically optimise for correctness, auditability and stability. But agentic systems optimise for iteration and adaptive execution. The report highlights that engineers now orchestrate systems rather than implement them, while humans still review high-impact decisions . For a state, that is almost a familiar model, it resembles how we already structure law, supervision and administrative processes. Which means the change is less alien than it looks. From Estonia’s perspective, this aligns with the direction we’ve been moving toward: event-based government, proactive services, and eventually agentic public administration, where human-control and trust are central. But it forces some uncomfortable realizations: 1️⃣ The policy cycle becomes technical infrastructure. If systems can adapt instantly, legal and organisational processes become the slowest component. 2️⃣ Oversight moves from after-the-fact control to architecture design. Humans remain central, but intervene at escalation points, meaning accountability must be built into the system itself. 3️⃣ Multi-agent architectures mirror administrative structures. Coordinated specialised agents resemble ministries, agencies and registries more than traditional software. 4️⃣ Cybersecurity becomes service design. Agentic capability strengthens both defence and attack, security can no longer be a separate layer. 5️⃣ Policy experts become system designers. Non-technical users building workflows means governance competence must include operational logic literacy. Digital government used to focus on digitising administration. Agentic government will operationalise policy. Countries that understand this early won’t just have better services, they will be fundamentally more adaptive.

There’s a steady narrative that AI will make government more efficient—faster services, fewer staff hours, lower costs. A recent brief from New America by Mai-Ling Garcia and Neil Kleiman offers an important counterpoint: while AI can improve efficiency in some areas, it also increases demand on systems that are already stretched. When friction drops, more people can apply for benefits, report issues, seek help, and navigate services. Needs that were always there become visible. That’s a good thing, but it also means more work to plan for. The authors describe AI as a “demand machine,” a framing that will feel familiar to many public servants. Intake speeds up faster than response capacity. Complexity rises as routine tasks are automated. Expectations grow faster than systems can adapt. We’ve seen versions of this dynamic before across waves of civic tech. What's different now is the speed and scale. The brief makes a clear point that the real risk isn’t automation itself. It’s automation without redesign. Service experiences live beyond digital interfaces. They span people, spaces, workflows, policies, and the moments where judgment and care show up. Improving one layer without preparing the others creates strain inside the system. Whole-service thinking matters. New tools can accelerate demand, but organizations need equal attention on staffing models, workflows, governance, and the human moments that hold everything together. Otherwise, progress on the surface can feel like pressure behind the scenes. The brief also calls for rethinking how we define value. If success is measured only by speed or cost savings, we miss what determines whether a service works: trust, quality, and the ability to learn over time. It’s not just about what we can automate. It’s about whether we’re ready for the demand that follows. Worth a read for anyone thinking about the future of public service delivery. Link in comments. #PublicService #GovTech #ServiceDesign #DigitalGovernment

When the CIO of the Department of Defense created the first-ever Customer Experience Officer (CXO) role, I was asked to build it from the ground up. There was no template to follow, only a challenge and an opportunity to make technology and services work better for those who serve our country. I approached it through the lens of design as a system of problem solving, not a department or title. The goal was to embed customer experience into how policy is written, how technology is built, and how outcomes are measured. Over time, I developed a model for creating what I call design infrastructure within a federal enterprise, built to last beyond any one leader or initiative. 1. Building Alliances Find the right people who understand the organization’s culture and mission. Change happens when you build trust and momentum from within. 2. Identifying Leverage Points Every organization has pressure points where decisions happen. Learning its rhythms and values helps introduce design in ways that move the system forward. 3. Defining Measurable Outcomes Design without accountability is decoration. We built governance frameworks, investment strategies, OKRs, and feedback loops tying user experience directly to mission success. 4. Developing a Robust Design Infrastructure Design must be: - Authoritative: vetted, documented, and approved - Sustained: funded, adopted, and improved - Scaled: applied widely, normalizing what good experience looks like This approach positioned customer experience as a strategic enabler for modernization, shaping how technology decisions were made and how teams collaborated. In the same spirit, recently, I continued this conversation during a panel hosted by NuAxis Innovations and the GovCX Collective — “Digital Experience and the Future of Government Services.” Inspired by Executive Order 14338, “Improving Our Nation Through Better Design,” it brought together leaders shaping the next wave of design and technology in government. We discussed how standards created through the National Design Studio, paired with practices like DevSecCXOps, can reduce friction and deliver experiences that work for everyone. We also explored the impact of AI, lessons from past CX initiatives, and how thoughtful design can modernize the citizen experience. This past year has been a continuation of that mission: helping build systems that make government more human, resilient, and capable of meeting people where they are. If you’re in government, design, or technology, I hope these conversations resonate. We need more spaces where design and policy meet, and more people willing to bridge that gap. You can listen to the full episode here: https://lnkd.in/gssi4mSx Change takes persistence, partnership, and a deep belief that design belongs everywhere decisions are made. Podcast courtesy of 311 Podcast Photo courtesty of Raza S. Latif

Public-sector organizations are under increasing pressure to modernize, but bureaucracy, legacy systems, and institutional complexities often prevent them from doing so. Service design, however, can change that. It’s a human-centered approach that can align internal processes or constraints with user needs in public service delivery to deliver on policy intent. Key methods that make the difference: • people-centered research through observations and citizen journey mapping to identify friction points and improvement opportunities • Service delivery design that optimizes touchpoints, citizen interactions, and supporting processes • Co-creation workshops that bring stakeholders and citizens together to develop solutions collaboratively The impact is real. Services can become more efficient and easier to navigate. People have better experiences with public services, leading to greater trust and engagement. Innovation can thrive as teams navigate and challenge outdated assumptions and work across silos. There are challenges—resistance to change, complexity, institutional rigidity. However, organizations that embrace service design are proving that thoughtful, well-designed services don’t just improve experiences. They create lasting impact. I came across this paper by Tsotsas and Fragidis entitled: The Contribution of Service Design in Public Sector Modernization: Challenges, Barriers, and Opportunities of the Design Methods They outline three key barriers to adopting service design in the public sector: • Institutional structures and regulations that limit flexibility • The complexity of public service ecosystems makes change difficult to implement • Resistance from public servants who may see design-driven change as disruptive   Despite these barriers, they argue that service design presents a significant opportunity to modernize public administration by increasing efficiency, fostering people-centered innovation, and improving service delivery at scale. #ServiceDesign #PublicSectorInnovation #HumanCenteredDesign #DigitalTransformation #GovernmentInnovation #CitizenExperience #ServiceDelivery #PolicyDesign #InnovationInGovernment #SystemsThinking #PublicService #DesignThinking #UserCenteredDesign #CoCreation #ModernizingGovernment #PublicSectorTransformation #OrganizationalChange #DesignForImpact