Designing a Better Digital Government — and Inspiring Harvard Students

By Nick Sinai, Adjunct Lecturer in Public Policy, Harvard Kennedy School

Last week, tech guru Tim O’Reilly, White House U.S. Digital Service co-founder Haley Van Dyck, and VA Chief Technology Officer Marina Martin visited Harvard Kennedy School to talk about making government digital services simpler and more user-focused — and their personal experiences at the forefront of government change.

It was a full house, with over 80 students attending on a rainy Friday morning from across Harvard University. The event was sponsored by the Shorenstein Center, the Center for Public Leadership, and the Ash Center.

One of the highlights of the panel was the discussion about the importance of user-focused design, also known as human-centered design. Too often government seeks “stakeholder input” from inside and outside government, but neglects real research about what actual users need.

Groups like Code for America, the U.S. Digital Service (USDS), and the U.K.’s Government Digital Service (GDS) are doing actual ethnographic research — researching, observing, and interviewing users in their natural environments — to make sure they really understand the full range of user needs, as a necessary precursor to building services that meet those needs.

In fact, Tim recommended that the entire room read the design principles from the U.K. government.

Design is also crucial to how the White House is currently tackling high priority projects. As Haley explained, USDS is working on is the modernization and digitization of the visa application process.

According to a recent White House post about bringing our immigration system into the digital age, USDS uses four key (design) principles:

1. Understand user needs.
USDS designers did user research to discover the needs of people who use immigrant visa services, and the ways the service fits into their lives. We also looked at government agencies as “users” of their own processes, and asked for insights about what could be improved. This invaluable data will inform future technical and design decisions to better our system from the inside out.

2. Address the whole experience, from start to finish.
We heard time and time again from users that they are often overwhelmed by the multiple agencies that play a role in processing their immigration application. Our goal is to minimize confusion for the user, streamline the adjudication process, and reduce redundancy.

3. Make the process clear, simple, and intuitive, so that users succeed.
It is necessary to make our process as clear and simple as possible so that individuals understand the process, are fully prepared when they make their request, and can apply for and secure the immigration benefit for which they qualify.

4. Use the same language and design patterns when building digital services.
Consistent design patterns help users become familiar with the services offered. An applicant shouldn’t feel like they’re submitting multiple forms to multiple agencies and players, and should feel secure that their forms are received.

U.S. Digital Service team member (and Harvard Kennedy School alumnus) Kate Krontiris was in the audience, and shared her experience about working on the immigration modernization project. As part of the user research phase, Kate travelled to the Dominican Republic to observe and interview people applying for a U.S. visa — as well as shadow and interview Foreign Service officers at the U.S. Embassy who are making these important decisions. Kate noted that it was the first time her user research experience and her HKS policy education came together and were both needed in a single project — which ultimately culminated in a recent Presidential report with a set of policy recommendations.

Similarly, Tim told the story of Code for America fellow Jake Solomon and his team’s research about how cumbersome it is for people to apply for food stamps. It’s a post definitely worth reading for anyone interested in improving government.

(The day following the HKS panel, the White House released a behind-the-scenes blog post about how the USDS and the Department of Education directly engaged users in every single step of the College Scorecard project that President just announced.)

Another big topic of discussion for the panel was what HBS Professor Mitch Weiss calls public entrepreneurship — how to be a change agent and inventor in the public sector.

Both Marina and Haley are true public sector entrepreneurs, founding and scaling new digital service units in the VA and in the White House, respectively. They talked about using empathy to partner with colleagues who have institutional knowledge, and focusing on results (including early prototypes) as the best way to build consensus and trust.

Marina is leading an effort for Secretary Bob McDonald to eventually consolidate over 1,000 VA websites into a simpler and easier to use website (vets.gov) for veterans. But she and her team are doing it in steps, launching with just a small prototype this fall, and will continue to iteratively test with users to make sure the website actually helps real veterans and their caregivers find the information they need.

The panel also discussed the idea of government as a platform — similar to how large tech companies are platforms for third parties who are part of their ecosystem. Apple doesn’t build the vast majority of the apps in its app store, yet users (and Apple) get a lot of value from them. Similarly, government can enable third parties to deliver unique and innovative value on top of the government platform, by opening up data and application programming interfaces (APIs) to the public — what I’ve called “wholesale government.”

Finally, students and participants wanted practical advice on what to study and how to gain practical skills while at the Kennedy School. From Innovation Lab workshops to CS50 to various classes at HKS (including my spring field class on tech and innovation), there are a growing number of tech and innovation resources across Harvard University. Students were also curious about how they could learn more and scrub in — and here’s what the panelists wrote on the chalkboard: Apply.pif.gov, WH.gov/USDS, CodeforAmerica.org, PMF.gov, and 18f.gsa.gov.