The evolving concept of service patterns
Exploring a global pattern library
Service patterns are reusable guides for designing common types of services, and they’re nothing new. In a 2015 blog post, Lou Downe, former Director of Design in the UK government, explained how patterns provide a blueprint for delivering specific types of services effectively. By reducing the need to redesign them from scratch, teams can focus on what’s unique to their service.
According to Lou, service patterns provide:
- A consistent user journey
- Consistent internal processes
- Standards that outline when, where, and how a user journey and process functions
- Modular components that can be assembled to build this journey, including common registers, platforms, and reusable code
In 2018, this concept was further explored at the Service Design in Government conference during a workshop led by Kay Dale and Ignacia Orellana. The international group of attendees proposed 10 principles for developing service patterns:
- Always put users first
- Respond to common end users’ needs
- Be flexible
- Be created in a collaborative way and provide a common language
- Be channel-agnostic
- Be proven to work
- Transform services front-to-back
- Be continually iterated
- Be supported with guidance
- Build consistent experiences across government services
The concept of service patterns was put into practice as described in a blog post by Nicholas Ward, Alessandra Canella and Jenny Thai working with Essex County Council. Their approach involved looking at end-to-end services and breaking them down into smaller, manageable steps, like registering, booking, and paying — each of which can be further refined through design.
Working with TPXImpact, they created a service pattern library categorising 147 services into seven broader patterns: Check, Register, Tell, Request, Apply, Book, and Pay, with each pattern detailing the specific steps involved in the process.
Many public sector organisations include service patterns in their design systems. For example, the GOV.UK Design System offers service patterns like ‘Help users to check if a service is suitable’. We are solving the same problems and achieving similar outcomes time and time again. Is now the time for some service patterns to become common, standardised resources at an inter-governmental level?
A proof of concept international service pattern library
GovStack is a toolbox for governments across the world to build digital public services at scale. It shares and documents tools, knowledge and international best practices. In 2023, the GovStack user experience working group developed guidelines and patterns for creating user-centric, accessible, and technically robust digital services.
For each pattern, the group adapted guidance from other governments, aligning it with GovStack’s reusable components (building blocks). For instance, the high-level ‘find the service’ pattern was broken down into three distinct design templates:
- Service catalogue
- Service sheet
- Search results
In version 1, the group documented 5 high-level service patterns and 10 wireframes. Tools were also developed to help use the patterns such as the service blueprinting template and wireframing kit. These were first put to the test with the 137 participants of the Women in GovTech Challenge where the tools were used to create 14 prototypes.
We think this user experience working group could be a great place to facilitate an international community, sharing and documenting common patterns. A place to explore the differing needs and experience from different governments and accelerate the delivery of accessible, usable, and consistent services world-wide.
Scaling pattern development across governments
This isn’t another design system. We’re not here to detail how things should look or work; instead, we are here to offer design decisions that have been successful around the world. This second iteration is all about putting our existing content to the test in real-world scenarios, learning from the practical application of our patterns. It’s about storytelling and communicating how patterns can be used, as well as expanding our library to include a broader range of patterns.
Our vision is to broaden the working group to include not only service designers but other roles like researchers, content designers, creative writers and government professionals applying the patterns in their work. By using GovStack as a platform for perspectives from around the globe, we can start to document service design patterns that meet a broader range of user needs, for example, varying literacy levels, remote or rural communities, non-mobile or desktop screens (like kiosks), indigenous-led initiatives, and low connectivity environments.
Let’s keep exploring how service patterns can make the delivery of services more efficient and accessible and continue to use them in our organisations and beyond. Follow our story at www.govstack.global.
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Laurence Berry is the founder of Komo.International whose aim is to connect digital teams around the world solving common problems.
Betty Mwema is a senior service designer at the UK’s Government Digital Service. She holds a Master in Design from The University of Edinburgh.
Stefan Draskic is a product designer at casavi. He is an advocate of public service design and digital transformation of governments.
