Design Methods

We apply human-centered design. The first three plays of the Digital Service Playbook nicely summarize what that entails:

• Understand what people need
• Address the whole experience, from start to finish
• Make it simple and intuitive

For the most part, we want to apply good practice from the commercial and government worlds. After all, important government services should have design on par with apps for banking, entertainment, or other less impactful fields.

Design in Government is Special

In many commercial or startup contexts, we can target specific customers and desired outcomes. In government services, we cannot strategically chose to not serve certain customer sets. For example, it may be reasonable for a mobile game startup to target only Apple or Android. For a government service that people depend on, we cannot be selective about who we serve. The stakes are higher - with potentially life-changing benefits on the line.