User Experience Design for the public sector

Exclamation : All opinions and views mentioned in this article are my personal.

Create an impact with a strong CTA, design highly clickable websites, how to climb to the top of google search…

Those are few of the most popular topics you can read on the Internet about web and UX design. If you are a designer in an agency or run a business it might be a useful stuff, but if you are a UX designer in a public sector then situation is slightly different.

Information about solving problems, not related to earning more money or designing a bait for new customers is bit more complicated and definitely less covered…

I’ve been working in various places, agencies, high-tech companies and was a freelancer (in mixed order) and I’ve found working for public sector very interesting, but in the same time very challenging.

This is why I was looking for information on how to design forms and web pages for the public sector.

I was looking and looking… and apart from GDS gov.uk couldn’t find many interesting blogs where people would share their experience on designing stuff non for profit.

Let’s face it, when you design a form which people have to fill in to apply for certain services you have slightly different purposes and psychological toolkit than a company which is working on a form just to sell their services.

You have just letters, logic, your brain and (if you’re lucky) ability to convince experienced managers that your new ideas will work…

This is why after working in the public sector for 8 months I decided to share my insight into this exciting environment. Having such a limited toolkit you need to pay attention to details and think, think a lot, listen and ask questions, many questions.

My main area of focus are forms (and content strategy, but this topic will discuss next time). On everyday basis I convert old-school paper or pdf forms into online ones trying to translate the “real life” to online experience, to make it logical and hassle free.

It’s not easy. People do not like forms, especially when they need to fill them to sort out things they just need. But forms are part of our everyday life (don’t know for how long though but they are still present and still quite frustrating).

On a public sector website I can’t use fancy transitions, any kind of smokescreen which may make the experience nicer. I also can’t play with the layout as it’s set according to certain standards and design patterns. I have only letters.

I have to challenge myself and the service I prepare the form for. I have to think about the information architecture- type and order of questions, reasons why we ask them, type of answers. In the meantime I have to think about different user needs, I also have to match form answers with the business database functionality, procedure standards, protocols, policies etc and on top about data protection. I have to merry user needs with business needs. Or saying more colloquially, convince business, that if we make it easy for users they will be more open for cooperation and everyone will be happy.

To do this I have to challenge the service team asking them why they need certain information for. Sometimes it’s legal requirement, sometimes it’s connected with the type of service, but sometimes questions are in the form for years, because they are. They used to have it so they do. What I also have to ask is their business process. People who are working in certain area take some stuff for granted so asking right questions is a key and assumptions which I may have from my commercial experience… I can put aside and open for the new word of surprises.

I have to investigate every aspect of the service to understand both sides to create an experience which will fill their needs.

One of the main problem I face is how people used to do things. Public sector has got it’s own language, habits, procedures. My task is to make this all human friendly and accessible to the people from outside the organization. I am part of the organization, but I’m also a user advocate and my aim is to meet needs of both sides. Sometimes I have to put on a hat of a business annalists. I have to think how the user will input the data and how the service will process it how much time it will take them and how to optimize it and make them meet half way.

When you work for a public sector, you have a user who want to get things done. Want to get a parking permit, get needs assessment, check recycling date, they don’t get any reward in the end, nothing they’re looking froward to like for the new parcel from amazon. Just that and your task is to let them do this with the least hassle and effort.

UX designer job in the public sector is not limited only to drawing wire frames and sitting by the desk as I used to while working as a web designer or developer. It’s a lot of research and way more than I expected meetings and conversations. I’ve never had to speak to so many people before. I’ve never felt the need to do so, but here it’s the best way to find out all the information I need, to consult ideas, test assumptions. Words are my best friends… and my UX team the best backup.

It’s not a glamorous task, but pretty challenging and sometimes frustrating…

I would like to take you for a ride through my world of questions, answers, language nuances, form design complexity…

Interested? Please clap few times to encourage me to continue.

I promise to improve my writing ;)

Thanks.

P.S.

If you’re interested in the topic, here you can find a lot of interesting information about government digital services behind the scenes https://gds.blog.gov.uk/

Also a classic from 2008, Luke Wroblewski “ Web Form Design: Filling in the Blanks”