Design with end users (citizens, residents, businesses)

Service design provides a good framework for a multi-disciplinary team to deliver a design-led and end-user engaged service. People responsible for service delivery must engage end users early in the design and iteration process, and consider their feedback for validating the best potential design, governance, and the continuous improvement process for a service. Concept testing should be conducted well before a solution is decided upon or anything is built. It’s important to keep in mind that public-facing services might include third parties delivering services on behalf of Government, suppliers, and business end users in addition to citizens. 

Questions to ask: 

• Who is the service design lead on your project or product team? 

• Have you clearly defined who your end users are? 

• Have you included end users in the research, design, concept testing, user testing, and continuous improvement of the service?

• How many potential solution concepts have you tested with end users? (This should be more than just one.)

• How can a user provide feedback, either positive or negative, that directly goes into the continuous improvement of the system or service?