Digital solutions designed around the people who use them
- Be clear about the outcomes you and your customers are trying to achieve, and make it easy for your customers to get it right.
- Do the research to understand your customers’ needs, preferences and pain points.
- Find ways to meaningfully engage customers up-front in the design process.
- Use data and evidence, and knowledge from front-line/operational staff, to gain further insight and a deeper understanding of customer perspectives.
- Establish feedback loops to keep lines of communication open, enabling continuous improvement and refinement to designs over time.
Why it matters
Understanding your customers and factoring that knowledge into your design ensures services are user-friendly, accessible and fit-for-purpose. By engaging customers up-front, potential issues can be identified and costly redesign avoided.
Customers can interact with a digital service in ways we don’t expect. Discovering this early means you can find simple ways to prevent mistakes and help the customer get it right.
Involving customers in the design process also provides an opportunity to include diverse perspectives and fosters trust and transparency in government processes.
Digital services aligned with the needs of people they are designed for are more likely to be widely used and used correctly, meaning fewer errors and less need for manual intervention.