Fifteen principles of good service design, drawn from Lou Downe's time leading design across the UK government. Short, plain and opinionated.
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.
Step-by-step guidance for eleven systems thinking tools, including systems mapping, feedback loops and leverage points.
The community for service, interaction and content designers working in and around the UK government, coordinated through the GOV.UK Service Manual.
The UK's national strategic body for design, home of the Double Diamond and the Systemic Design Framework.
The UK government's blog about design, written by the people doing it across departments. Honest accounts of what worked and what did not.
The Ministry of Justice design system's introduction to ethical considerations for service teams, including harm, vulnerability, discrimination, trust and automated decisions.
The Ministry of Justice's principles for ethical services, including minimising harm, balancing power, inclusion, honesty and responsibility.
Ten principles for designing government services, starting with 'start with user needs'. Short enough to read in five minutes and widely borrowed outside government.
Author of Good Services and co-founder of the School of Good Services. Formerly Director of Design for the UK government.
Design principles, components and guidance for building health services in England, with a strong focus on accessibility and content.
A team in the UK Cabinet Office that brings design, data and ethnography into policy making, and writes openly about how.
Short courses on designing and leading services, run by Lou Downe and Sarah Drummond and grounded in public-sector experience.
An annual conference in Edinburgh for people designing public services, with workshops and talks drawn from across the UK and international public sectors.
The Design Council's evolution of the Double Diamond for problems that span organisations and systems, with a set of design principles and roles.
The Government Office for Science's introduction to systems thinking for complex public sector problems, bringing together guidance, tools and case studies.
An applied guide connecting systems thinking principles to defining goals, understanding a system, designing collaboratively and evaluating change.
The Scottish Government's framework and community for designing public services with the people who use them, with a shared method bank.
An occasional printed newspaper about service design, started by Martin Jordan in 2015, with short pieces from practitioners around the world. Most articles are also published online.
A ServDes 2018 paper and case study exploring stakeholder mapping as a way to talk about roles and the distribution of power in public service design.
Gerry Scullion's podcast network on human-centred design, with a dedicated strand of conversations about service design and public services.
Other topics
- Service blueprinting
- Journey mapping
- User research
- Discovery
- Stakeholder mapping
- Co-design
- Prototyping
- Health
- Systems thinking
- Systemic design
- Participatory design
- Design research
- Service organisations
- Professional practice
- Introductions
- Policy
- Futures
- Measurement
- Service standards
- Collaboration
- Education
- Power dynamics
- Agency and autonomy
- Design ethics
- Research ethics and consent
- Interviewing
- Memory and evaluation
- Dark patterns
- Culture and context
- Inclusion