5 Tips on Designing Public Services for the 21st Century

As part of its Innovation Convesation series, Y Lab ran a series of talks by experienced innovators to inspire and encourage organisations and individuals to be ambitious, showing real-world examples of social innovation and case studies from around the world. In this presentation, Dominic Campbell, founder and director, FutureGov shares his views on ‘designing public services for the digital age’. His key points are as follows:

1. Build don’t buy

Don’t buy solutions and then tailor them; invent solutions that directly solve your problem.

2. Be digital, not use digital

 Think about the entire user journey; digital should not be added as extra.

3. Empathy is hard, but empathy is everything

Use tools (service safaris, interviews, focus groups, user journey mapping) to better understand users.

4. Be disruptive

Use prototyping and early user involvement to minimize risk. 

5. Digital and design are not enough

You also need leadership, top support, and strategy.