Service Design Principles

The creation of Service Design Principles was called for in the Transformation Government Strategy published in November 2005. In March 2006, the Strategy’s implementation plan was published. On the subject of Service Design Principles it says: 29. The strategy said that government should: “Create a Service Transformation Board whose role is to set overarching service design principles, promote best practice, signpost the potential from technology futures and challenge inconsistency with agreed standards.” 30. Government has established the Board, comprising senior officials from across the public sector. A secretariat has been set up within the Cabinet Office, four meetings have taken place, and a network of working level contacts has been put in place to enable the Board to test and develop its activities rapidly. The Board is supported by a “Service Design Authority” within the Cabinet Office staffed by full-time and experienced practitioners in service design from central and local government and the private sector. The Service Transformation Board has issued guidelines on a range of key topics. 31. By November 2006 the Service Transformation Board will have established itself as a clearing house for dealing with the obstacles to service transformation, identifying blockers through its networks, using the resources at the centre to clear them, and implementing agreed decisions in departments through individual members. 32. In 2007, the Service Transformation Board will be tracking the effectiveness of these initiatives and reporting on its conclusions. Public sector Recognition of service design methodology and practice is beginning to emerge in the public sector. While the term ‘public services’ is common the nature of such services means that the user experience of them has often been sub-optimal. Afterall, they are often monopolistic in nature and their delivery is inevitably producer-led. However, service design is now recognised as a critical tool that can be used to create customer-facing public services that are used and are satisfactory. Driving this is overspill from the dotcom world. As government has tried to make services available online it has hit barriers that can be surmounted using service design Poor existing processes As public service providers tried to put their services online it has often simply been an exercise in slapping on an e-front end to a process designed to handle paper. In addition, often the new e-process simply mimiced the old one. Little thought was given to exploring otherways of achieving an outcome. The application of service design can help providers analyse which part of their processes are really critical, and most importantly, how they interface with the customers own processes. In other words, when the provider thinks a process starts when a citizen makes an application for assistance the reality is that the decision to apply only comes after a long worrying process by the citizen. Low up-take Poor take-up of public e-services is often the result of poorly designed services. Poor design not just in terms of poor user interface design but in terms of a failure to understand the beaviours and needs of users. Again, service design can provide insight that can be actioned to ensure that the service provides value to the user and encourages take-up of it Barrier 3: vertical silos Many public services are delivered through silo organisations that are focused on certain types of process in certain contexts. Collecting tax, or paying benefits or applying for licenses or ensuring compliance. Despite there being common processes the services design to enact them often vary immensely. Thus a paparent of a child with special needs will be assessed, case-managed and paid benefit by different agencies in different ways. Often the subject will know more about the cross-government state of the provision of the services than the prproviders do themselves. In effect, the parent ends up joining-up across the boundaries between the silos. UK Government response In the UK, the Cabinet Office e-Government Unit has issued guidance to help improve service delivery. The guide is called Service Design and Delivery Guide. It has six principles of which the second is most relevant. Design and deliver all services on an e-enabled multi-channel basis, using “research about customer needs, access and usability requirements,” and exploiting self-service wherever possible. See also entry for RED Source: Livework Studio Ltd Links: Transformation Government Strategy click here Strategy’s implementation plan click here