Brussels / 30 & 31 January 2016

schedule

Open source design in the UK Government?

An introduction to (open source) research and design of online services for the UK government


4 years ago, the UK set up Government Digital services. The objective was to build "digital by default" government services for the UK public which were "simpler, clearer and faster".

User research, user centred design and open source technologies are central to building services that meet GDS's standards.

This session will be an overview of some projects I've worked on showing how user research and design is done in the open, and will discuss limitations of the government "open source" approach.

4 years ago, the UK set up Government Digital services. The objective was to build "digital by default" government services for the UK public which were "simpler, clearer and faster".

User research, user centred design and open source technologies are central to building services that meet GDS's standards.

Right now the if a member of the public has some research or design input, they themselves are unable to commit a change to it, it's not possible for them to get their "patches" seen, or it is very rare. Why is this?

This session will be an overview of some projects I've worked on showing how user research and design is done in the open, how we try to open source our work where possible, and why we don't when it is not possible.

The session will ask the following questions:

  • Is this really open source?

  • How could that be improved?

  • Does it matter?

Speakers

Photo of Bernard Tyers Bernard Tyers

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