Over the summer at GDS we ran a discovery on the tools and resources teams in government use when designing their services. We wanted to understand how design happens in teams, what information people use when they design and what …
We recently hosted Design Ventura teacher training at our offices in London. What is Design Ventura? Design Ventura is a competition is run by school teachers, with the support of the Design Museum's education team and design industry volunteers. It challenges students …
The design team has grown hugely since we started - both in size and the scope of what we do. Those of you who know us well will know we’ve grown from a small team almost exclusively at GDS to …
At GDS we design based on user needs and always try to keep things as simple as possible for the user. We often say that design shouldn’t interfere with the user journey – except for when the user needs it …
We’ve talked lot about service patterns. Time to show one. This is a pattern we’re calling check before you start. The pattern is for users to check whether they can and should use a service. It could be used in services …
We wanted to show solidarity and reflect the diversity in the GDS team, so we created some stickers, graphics and posters to present that to everyone.
I don’t talk a lot about myself on this blog. For obvious reasons - the work of a head of design is done in the background. The work is more important than you are. However, this week I had the …
Working on prototypes, a lot can change quickly. It’s good to have a record of previous iterations so you can revisit the changes and decisions you made in the past. I like to keep a running log for each round …
Charlotte Moore from Home Office said something really interesting at the cross government design meeting two weeks ago: "Aim for simple comprehension, not just plain English." She was talking together with Ed Horsford. They explained how they tested the Renew Passport service with users …
It’s easy to spot when a service isn’t working, it’s not always easy to spot why it isn’t working. That said, we’re gradually finding common issues which lead to problems in services across government. Many of them hinge on two …
GOV.UK