Common Principles for Digital Services?

I have recently been involved in looking at some internal digital services in the role of Digital Architect.

During this process I have a mental model of the key points that I would expect in any service.

These are pretty generic and I would ask them for any new service, or an old one which is being transformed.

They might not all apply to every service.

I am not saying that we should always take the relevant action but we should make sure that we consider them.

See what you think. Would you add anything extra?

People
  • We will focus on our known user needs: if we do not know what these user needs are we will find out
  • We work based around personas, user cases and tasks
  • We will provide a consistent user experience (e.g. buttons look the same and generate the same action)
  • User feedback is integrated into every product creation process and inbuilt once a product is live
Information/data
  • When users look for information they should be confident that they have found everything on that topic
  • We should always aim to be able to re-use information/data externally for the benefits of our clients
  • Information/data should be input once and retrieved many times
  • Content should only be in one place either internally or externally and not duplicated
Technology
  • We follow an agile, modular, design and build approach
  • Wherever possible we will create API to allow the easy reuse of data/information internally or externally
  • We will always consider if content or processes can be made as a app
  • We should focus on open standards and avoid vendor or supplier lock-in
  • Any information or data should be easily exportable from any system
Processes
  • Each process will have a high level process map to fit into the NAO QMS
  • We will identify poorly performing processes with a view to transforming them
  • We aim to minimise the number of user actions/clicks for every process
  • We will create agreed performance metrics and create a performance dashboard
  • We must follow recognised governance and risk management procedures

Nick Halliday is part of the GovLoop Featured Blogger program, where we feature blog posts by government voices from all across the country (and world!). To see more Featured Blogger posts, click here.

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