Louise Downe discusses the challenges of designing government services and five things being done to scale service design. Government spends 80% of its costs on services, with 60% spent on calls and casework. Services were not designed for the internet and need to be rebuilt from the ground up. The five things being done are: 1) Reducing complexity by simplifying processes. 2) Building services around verbs rather than nouns to help people understand what to do. 3) Collaborating openly across departments as most services involve multiple teams. 4) Building standards and patterns together openly to improve services. 5) Growing internal service design teams to better design services.

1. Content
Conference
Manchester
#ConConMcr

2. Louise Downe
Head of Design for Government
Government Digital Service
@LouiseDowne

3. Service design is
the next challenge for
government

4. 80% of the cost of
government
is spent on services
@louisedowne

5. 60% of that cost is
spent on calls
and casework
@louisedowne

6. @louisedowne GDS
*
@louisedowne

7. The 8th most popular
service on GOV.UK
is a phone number

8. Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences
Regulations 1995 (RIDDOR)
Registrations for Knowledge Transfer Network (KTN)/connect access
(MEMBERS)
Request for a further search under section 17(6) or payment for a
supplementary certificate under section 17(8)/Request for search
(F9/F9A)
Employer Ownership Pilot (EOP)
Well Operations Notification System (WONS): consents and
notifications
Charity Letter Forwarding Service
@louisedowne

9. Google is the home
page to your service
@louisedowne

10. #GOOGLEFAIL
@louisedowne

11. Our services
weren’t designed for
the internet
@louisedowne

12. Sell a carLearn to
drive
@louisedowne

13. Buy a car
@louisedowne

14. Employ
someone
@louisedowne

15. Service patterns
It took me two
years to work out
what i needed to
look after
children
@louisedowne

16. A service is something
that helps someone to
do something
@louisedowne

17. Changing the way a
service looks won’t
fix this

18. New technology
won’t either

19. We need to rebuild
services from the
ground up

20. 5 things
we’re doing to scale
service design

21. 1.
Reducing complexity

22. Most of the time a
better service is a
more efficient service
@louisedowne

24. screen shot + what changed
@louisedowne @katyarnie

25. 1. Passport
2. Photo
3. Employers letter
4. Letter of invitation
5. Bank deposit certificate
6. Bank statement
7. Property certificate
8. Marriage certificate
9. Retirement certificate
10. Family book (Hukou)
11. Business registration certificate
12. Car insurance
13. Certificate of relationship to parents
14. Utilities bills, P60 council tax bill
@louisedowne

26. 1. Passport
2. Photo
3. Employers letter
4. Letter of invitation
5. Bank deposit certificate
6. Bank statement
7. Property certificate
8. Marriage certificate
9. Retirement certificate
10. Family book (Hukou)
11. Business registration certificate
12. Car insurance
13. Certificate of relationship to parents
14. Utilities bills, P60 council tax bill
@louisedowne

27. 1. Passport
2. Photo
3. Employers letter
4. Letter of invitation
5. Bank deposit certificate
6. Bank statement
7. Property certificate
8. Marriage certificate
9. Retirement certificate
10. Family book (Hukou)
11. Business registration certificate
12. Car insurance
13. Certificate of relationship to parents
14. Utilities bills, P60 council tax bill
@louisedowne

28. Reduced paper
documents sent by
25%
@louisedowne

29. 2.
Building verbs
not nouns

30. 40% of phone calls to
government are to
check “what to do”
@louisedowne

31. @louisedowne

32. @louisedowne

33. 3.
Collaborating
in the open

34. Most services
involve more than
one department
@louisedowne

35. @louisedowne

36. 4.
Building standards
and patterns together

37. Most standards are:
created once
from the center
untested
mostly wrong
@louisedowne

38. @louisedowne GDS@louisedowne GDS@louisedowne GDSGDS@louisedowne

39. 700 contributors
updated daily
open to everyone
@louisedowne

40. Live policy
written in the open
@louisedowne

41. Cheaper to build
easier to improve
better public services
@louisedowne

42. 5.
Building service
design teams

43. @louisedowne GDS@louisedowne GDS@louisedowne GDS@louisedowne

44. @louisedowne

45. Highest completion
rate in government
@louisedowne

46. Thanks!