The pressures on for public services to deliver. Government is investing like never before, and it wants a return on its spending. But what will that pay-back look like?

The pressures on for public services to deliver. Government is investing like never before, and it wants a return on its spending. But what will that pay-back look like? The clearest sign that public services are working well is satisfied users. And the best way to make users happy is to develop services around their needs. The experience we have when we use a service determines what we think of it and whether we want to go back for more.

So how do public services go about getting that experience right? Design has a key role to play in the modernisation going on throughout the public sector. It's easy to think of design jus as isolated outputs, such as a new set of business cards or a logo, but in fact it's a process for discovering and anticipating what people need and developing the solutions that will meet those needs efficiently and effectively.

The message is beginning to get through to central Government. In 2002 Tony Blair said: "Investment alone is not enough. The key to reform is redesigning the system around the user - the patient, the pupil, the passenger, the victim of crime."

Download full Article (PDF 468.63KB)