What is User Centred Design?
User-Centred Design (UCD) is a design methodology that places the needs and experiences of the people who will use a service at the heart of the design process. The user-centred design process starts with user research.
Rather than focusing on internal processes or technological constraints, UCD starts by understanding the users' needs, motivations, and pain points.
In the public sector, this is especially crucial because services need to be accessible, intuitive, and effective for all citizens, who often have diverse needs and levels of technical proficiency.
By prioritising the user, UCD aims to improve service delivery, build trust and transparency, increase service adoption and ultimately create public services that are genuinely helpful and user-friendly.
Why does user-centred design matter in government?
- It’s a legal and ethical requirement. - The Public Sector Equality Duty and accessibility laws mean we must design services that work for everyone. It’s not just ‘good practice’—it’s the law.
- It saves time and money. - Fixing poor design decisions late in delivery (or post-launch) is far more expensive than getting it right early.
- It reduces risk. - Designing with users from the start helps prevent policy or service failure down the line.
- It improves outcomes for users and government. - Services that work well for users mean fewer failed transactions, less demand on support teams, and better policy outcomes.
What does user-centred design actually do?
UCD is not just “making things look nice.” It’s about understanding users, their needs, and designing services that work for them. A good UCD team will:
- Do discovery properly - Uncovering what users really need, beyond assumptions.
- Prototype early, fail fast - Testing ideas quickly to avoid costly mistakes.
- Design inclusively - Ensuring no one is excluded, especially those with access needs.
- Advocate for simplicity - Making complex processes easy to use.
What does working in a user-centred way look like?
- User research is continuous, not a one-off activity. We don’t just ‘tick the research box’ and move on.
- Design decisions are based on evidence, not opinions. We test and iterate instead of relying on gut feelings.
- Policy and service design must align. A great policy idea can fail if it doesn’t work in real life for users.
- Collaboration is key. UCD professionals should work with product managers, developers, and policy teams from the start—not be brought in at the end.
What do we need from colleagues?
To work effectively, we need:
- Support from leadership. User-centred design isn’t optional—it needs buy-in at all levels.
- Time to do design properly. Rushing to deliver something ‘fast’ often leads to failure and rework.
- Access to users. We can’t design for people if we can’t talk to them.
- Willingness to act on research insights. If user research tells us something isn’t working, we need to change it.
How can you help?
- Ask “What do users need?” before “What do we want to build?”
- Involve UCD colleagues early and often.
- Champion user needs in your role. Even if you’re in policy, tech, or delivery - your work affects real people.
- Push back when something isn’t user-centred. Challenge decisions that don’t consider evidence from research and design.