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GOV.UK Service Manual

The UK government's manual for designing and running public services: the Service Standard, guidance on discovery, alpha, beta and live, and on user research and service design.

You can find here

  • the Service Standard
  • how the discovery, alpha, beta and live phases work
  • guidance on user research
  • the service design community

Good for questions like

  • The community for service, interaction and content designers working in and around the UK government, coordinated through the GOV.UK Service Manual.

  • Design principles, components and guidance for building health services in England, with a strong focus on accessibility and content.

  • Ten principles for designing government services, starting with 'start with user needs'. Short enough to read in five minutes and widely borrowed outside government.

  • The UK government's blog about design, written by the people doing it across departments. Honest accounts of what worked and what did not.

  • Fifteen principles of good service design, drawn from Lou Downe's time leading design across the UK government. Short, plain and opinionated.

  • Author of Good Services and co-founder of the School of Good Services. Formerly Director of Design for the UK government.