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How to create a portfolio to apply for a design role in government

A laptop computer on a wooden desk, its screen shows the title page of a design portfolio

What should a portfolio look like when applying for a design role in government? Whatever your experience level, in this post you’ll find advice on how to shape a good portfolio, what is expected of you and why having and updating a portfolio is important.

How designers across government are working remotely

A visual representation of many connected nodes on a computer screen, most of them grouped together in one of five coloured clusters, a headline above the map reads: ‘Prison leavers communities and relationships’

Designers in government have adapted to the new circumstances, altered their ways of working and adopted new tools. For this blog post, we reached out to various service designers from different government organisations to hear how they are working under the changed environment.

What we are doing to increase equity in the GDS design team

A small group of woman with different darker skin tones participating in a cross-government workshop, working with coloured sticky notes

The GDS design team is not equitable enough. This means some people face more barriers than others in the workplace because of their characteristics or the groups they are a part of. We want to do better. In this blog post, we are sharing what we are doing to increase equity in the team.

What a demographics survey told us about the diversity of our design team

Posted by: and , Posted on: - Categories: Community, Equity
A hand of a person with light skin holding a smartphone showing an online survey; its headline says: ‘Demographics of the GDS design team’

The GDS design team aims to reflect the diversity of the society it serves. We conducted a demographics survey to see how well the design team represents the population of London before taking the next steps of improving the equity of the team.

User-centred design in local government: where it’s at

Announcement graphic for Local #govdesign Day on 25 November 2019 at Birmingham Council House from 11 to 5 o’clock; supported by Birmingham City Council

Many local councils all across the UK are increasing their design, user research, and content design capability. Designers and design-minded people are improving the public services provided by Local Authorities. We are running a Local #govdesign Day to bring these people together and showcase their work.

International Design in Government community autumn update

Mari Nakano, Design Director at the NYC Mayor's Office for Economic Opportunity, presenting in front of a group of people at the International Design in Government Day in Oakland; a poster behind her reads: “The future of government is better design”; the speaker smiles and members of the audience take pictures with their smartphones

Over the summer, the growing International Design in Government community gathered at a few events. In autumn, there will be 2 more events in Europe. In this post, we share what members of community can expect next.

Become a service designer in government: step by step

A person points with their finger at a hand-drawn map introducing service design in multiple steps with diagrams

Service design is a rapidly growing and much needed field in government. In this post, Sanjay Poyzer describes how he became a service designer and shares some steps you could take to become a service designer in government.

International Design in Government events this summer

A poster promoting the International Design in Government Day. It contains a quote from Lou Downe: “The future of government transformation is better design”. The poster also contains the logo of the organisers – Code for America and the International Design in Government community – and the date of the event: 29 May 2019

After running the first ever International Design in Government Conference in London last summer, we asked our community who would like to bring it to their country. In this post, we share where designers in government will get to gather next.