‘Digital by default’ in
local public services
Martin Greenwood
www.socitm.net
‘Digital by default’
How might local public services respond to the spirit
of this central government policy?
• Does our service need to meet such a standard?
• How will our local services possibly be assessed against
any equivalent standard?
• What steps should local services now take now in this
journey?
• What if local services fail to meet the opportunities of going
digital?
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The most important thing to have happened
in our web world in 2013………………..
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The World’s Very
First Website (1992)
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The World’s Very
First Website (1992)
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2013
Design of the Year 2013 (Design Museum)
The jury unanimously
agreed that GOV.UK
was the overall winner
for its well thought out
yet understated design,
making the user
experience faster and
easier. The website is
regarded as one of the
leading government
websites in the world.
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Let next year be the year of simplicity!
“Still the norm for a council home page is clutter,
chaos and confusion. Menu after menu; overlapping
subjects; cryptic labels; unexplained logos;
important things hidden below the fold or buried in
footers. Exhortations to ‘do it online’ or to ‘find it’ etc
But the answer is to simplify, de-clutter, reduce the
number of menus, make things easier to use. Yes,
top tasks are a good idea – but adding a top tasks
menu in as a fifth or sixth way to navigate the home
page is not that helpful.
Better connected 2013 reviewer
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Key principles
• You should know what your top tasks are from evidence
• The design of your site should be shaped around your top
tasks
• It should not be based on hunch, fashion or pressure from
above!
• The customer journey should be smooth, quick and
accurate for all tasks.
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1
GDS principles of navigation
• Focus on meeting user needs (not building websites!)
• Be obsessed with user feedback and constant
user testing
• Prioritise common case (not the exception)
• Achieve consistent user experience for all parts of online
government (across the council)
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GDS mantra
Digital services so good that all who can
use them prefer to use them….
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GDS mantra
Digital services so good that all who can
use them prefer to use them….
and we would add
Focus on the customer and savings will
follow (Principle 1 on customer experience,
Digital Insights)
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It’s not just about website design
Going digital means:
• Completely re-thinking service design from
customer viewpoint
• Web, mobile, social media etc
• Major changes in ways of working at every level
and in every service
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Digital by Default Service Standard
• 26 criteria to meet, eg
1.
Understand user needs – conduct research to develop a
deep knowledge of who the service users are and what that
means for digital and assisted digital service design.
• To meet standard, ask if your service is:
o completely new and/or being redesigned?
o processing (or likely to process) more than 100,000
transactions every year?
o responsibility of a central government department,
agency or non-departmental public body?
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But local public services are different
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Range of services
Costs of enquiry handling and channel shift
The line between front and back office
Complexity of some services
Impact of outsourcing
Differences of scale
Differences in local requirements
Differences in democratic accountability
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Digital Insights
Key principles
1. Customer experience
2. Service re-design
3. Engagement
4. Ways of working
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Supporting principles
5. Leadership
6. Capability
7. Demand management
8. Usability
9. System selection
10. Performance
11. Sharing
12. Agile working
13. Take-up
14. Assisted digital
15. Transparency
Digital Insights - key principles
1.
Focus on the customer and savings will
follow
2.
Redesign services from first principles taking
advantage of digital technologies
3.
Use ‘digital first’ for engagement with citizens
and customers.
4.
Adopt digital techniques for internal working
practices
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Service Design Manual
Some 87 guides grouped under nine subjects:
• agile
• assisted digital
• making software
• measurement
• operations
• phases of service design
• technology
• team
• user-centred design
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Service Design Manual: 5 useful examples
1 Writing government services
GDS says: ‘The GOV.UK style guide tells you what
writing conventions to adopt for GOV.UK. There’s
also more general advice on how our users read
and how to write for government services and
transactions’
• Digital Content Guidelines from LocalGov Digital
(October 2013)
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Service Design Manual: 5 useful examples
2 Job descriptions
3 Agile
4 Measurement
5 Assisted digital
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New report out yesterday from CLG….
Results of short survey
(7 questions) with 200
respondents (councils
and suppliers):
• Impact of digital
• Success criteria
• Leadership
• Strategy
• Already digital
• Tools and techniques
• Barriers
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Important to success?
1.
2.
3.
4.
Digital leadership within my organisation
Creating a business case for any digital‐led change
An internal skilled digital resource to support and drive this work
Sharing best practice and experience of developing local digital
services
5. Leadership across local government about developing digital
public services
6. Creating a guiding digital strategy for my organisation
7. Sharing of data / information between organisations
8. Access to shared digital assets
9. Hearing more about exemplars of digital success in public
services
10. A pool of high quality suppliers of digital tools, skills and
technologies
11. National government's digital strategy
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Our own in-depth survey in summer
• Digital leaders from 50 invited councils
• Responses from 30 councils
• Workshop in September for participants from 20
councils
• Overall, a patchy picture
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Adoption of digital principles
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Leading the way?
East Riding of Yorkshire
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Commitment from the top
Shared objectives across the organisation
Ambitious objectives
Comprehensive programme of work
Proven track record in customer service
Also, a very good website
• Selected by LGA in 2012 as one of five in Future
Councils programme
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Better with less: Delivering local public
services in this digital age
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East Riding of Yorkshire
Argyll & Bute
Birmingham
Buckinghamshire
Edinburgh
Hackney
Islington
Glasgow
Newham
Newport
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Rhondda Cynon Taf
Salford
Shropshire
Solihull
South Tyneside
Suffolk councils
Surrey
Swansea
Tameside
West London Alliance
and more
Better with less: Delivering local public
services in this digital age
New report being prepared now
Case studies welcome!
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‘Digital by default’ in local public services
Any comments?
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‘Digital by default’ in
local public services
Thank you for your time
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