5. Intro to Lab &
our approach
What is Policy Lab?
We are a creative space where
policy teams can develop the
skills and knowledge to develop
policy in a more open, digital
and user-centred way.
@PolicyLabUK
6. Intro to Lab &
our approach
What do we do?
We are proving ground for open
policymaking tools and
techniques. Through practical
projects and one-off
experiments, we test, refine and
evaluate new tools and
methods.
7. Intro to Lab &
our approach
Collaborative approach
We help key decision makers in
Government and public services
to view their efforts from outside
in, bringing clarity through
different perspectives – including
from users of services. We bring
together different experts,
working with the public and
frontline professionals.
8. Intro to Lab &
our approach
How do we work?
Demonstration projects
Provide specialist support for
policy teams who are interested
in applying new thinking and
approaches to real policy
challenges.
9. Intro to Lab &
our approach
How do we work?
Lab Light
Is an opportunity for policy
makers to quickly try out
experimental techniques, from
data science to co-design,
building confidence, skills and
new knowledge.
10. Intro to Lab &
our approach
What we’ve done so far
Since Policy Lab was launched in April we have:
• Demonstrator projects:
• Launched six projects with departments on:
• Crime reporting and follow up support
• Family mediation
• National Insurance Numbers for young people
• Health & employment outcomes
• Free childcare
• Civil Service learning
• Used these projects to develop a toolkit to share with civil servants
• Run ‘Lab light’ co-design sessions with 1000+ civil servants and organised a
Northern Futures Ideas Day across 8 venues in the North
18. Stages of the
design process
Discover scope Develop proposals
Journey mapping
Observation
Service safaris
Interviews
19. Stages of the
design process
Discover scope Develop proposals
Co-design
Observation
Prototyping
20. Why get insight
from users?
• Understands the real world
• Reduces waste
• Breaks down silos
• Inspires ideas?
21. Understand why
people act or feel
as they do
Why user centred design?
http://newsingeneral.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Google-Maps.jpg
22. Reduces waste by
only providing what
people need and
not what they
don’t need
Why user centred design?
http://cellar.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=38795&d=1337348766
25. Sparks ideas
Why user centred design?
http://ana-white.com/2011/04/farmhouse-bedside-table
26. Focus of today
Discover scope Develop proposals
Journey mapping
Observation
Service safaris
Interviews
27. • Help you understand the person
that you are designing a service
or policy for
• Think about their characteristics
– but also their personal life:
motivations, how they
experience the service, and
favourite TV show!
Personas
29. • Talks through how someone has
experienced a service:
Before – during – and afterwards
• Identifies ‘moments of magic’
and ‘points of pain’
• Asks people not only what
happened but how they felt
Journey mapping
31. Observation
• How people act is often different
from what people say
• Document everything (photos,
video recording)
• Ask someone to explain what
they are doing
• Look at the environment around
them
32. Service safaris
• Become the user and experience
the service yourself
• Note down ‘moments of magic’
or ‘points of pain’
• Use to identify what is wrong…
• …or learn from people doing it
right!
33. Interviews
• Ask people why they act or feel a
certain way (about a service)
• Ask open questions
• Don’t ask leading questions
34. Introduction to OPM & Policy Lab
What is user-centred design?
The Challenge: Create user insight to
design a new service
1. Create a persona
2. Get some insight
• User journey
• Service safari
• Observation
• Interviews
3. Analyse findings & prepare your pitch
4. Present!
13:00 – 13:10
13:10 – 13:20
Agenda
Develop: service propositions
13:20 – 13:35
13:35 – 14:25
14:25 – 14:40
14:40 – 15:00
35. To generate insight in order to develop a
new healthy living service for people who
work around Westminster
1 minute feedback per group: tell us about a
challenge and an opportunity
- Focus on insights, challenges, opportunities
- Ideas are fine, but not solutions just yet
Email observations to:
beatrice.andrews@cabinetoffice.gov.uk
Your task for today
Develop: service propositions
36. If we had longer…
Develop: service propositions
Well, let’s think of some public services - transport, healthcare, the police
All these things need to be designed with the user of the service in the middle
These arrows are used so much in diagrams, and actually they are the most important part - they signify the interaction between the user of the service and the service itself
Service design works to improve that interaction, designing it according to the users needs
These arrows are used so much in diagrams, and actually they are the most important part - they signify the interaction between the user of the service and the service itself
Service design works to improve that interaction, designing it according to the users needs
The backbone of service design is to understand the behaviour of the users
We do this through various methods, often called ethnography: through observation, shadowing, in-depth interviews, surveys
Which give us real insight into what their needs are
Mapping on the different points they interact with the service (called touchpoints), and their experience at the time - whether good or bad
And it’s those pain-points, where the experience is bad, that we see as opportunities - where we can intervene and re-design those touchpoints within the service to make it better
In this example, of going to A&E, it might be that they couldn’t find the entrance, and then staff didn’t welcome them, and then they had to wait for hours and didn’t know what was going on.
So we take those initial user needs, and problems with a service, come up with new ideas of how to solve them, and then take on the best ideas to test them out, cheaply and quickly, to see if the idea has legs.
