Observing a Digital Service Standard assessment: a must for all content designers

Building high-quality government services

This week I got the chance to observe a Digital Service Standard assessment.

This is a what the standard is all about:

The Service Standard ensures digital teams build high quality government services. A transactional service must meet each criteria to pass the Government Digital Service assessment. If a service doesn’t pass it won’t appear on GOV.UK.

The assessment I observed was a service going through the first stage of the process – the ‘alpha' assessment.

As someone who designs content on GOV.UK, I found it a fascinating insight into what goes into designing a service, and understanding the demands on a service team.

Look at the assessment questions before you build anything

The questions asked in the alpha assessment are useful to anyone starting to build a service – not just government. And if you look at these questions before you build anything, you’ll have a much clearer idea of what’s going to be involved. The service manual will help you dig much deeper into this.

Some of the questions are just as important for designing new content, too.

If you’re a content designer, try and get along to an assessment.

I’m going to be using what I’ve learned to help the Digital Service Standard team to make their assessment reports simpler and clearer. More on that in the weeks to come.

Things people need at the worst moments in their lives

On Thursday, I spent the day helping to deal with enquiries and feedback from members of the public about GOV.UK.

It’s something GOV.UK content designers do regularly. And it’s really eye-opening.

One piece of feedback came in about the content for Tell Us Once – the service that lets you report a death to most government organisations in one go.

It made me remember this: it’s easy to look at a content and just see words and whether or not it meets your style guide. But real people rely on it being accurate, clear and designed with empathy.

In the case of GOV.UK, it’s a whole nation relying on this. It’s a huge responsibility to make people feel respected in situations like this, and at the same time confident that they’ve got the right information. Empathy is vital.

This video about the power of empathy is an interesting watch.

Other things I’ve been working on

This week I’ve continued working on content for our driving test improvement theme – and started to think about a ‘show and tell’ presentation for the wider GOV.UK team about it.

I’ve also started working on content about debt repayments being taken from your wages. It’s not a subject matter I know very well. But there’s one thing I’ll be remembering as I work on it: the importance of empathy.