Top Tips: Understanding the value
1. Build a shared understanding around the value of design
Not everyone understands design
in the same way. Getting a
shared view and a common
perspective about what it means
to you and your sector is key to
getting people on board. Build a
compelling narrative around how
design-led thinking can play a
role in helping to evolve public
services and better meet the
needs of citizens. Find ways to
share and develop a consistent
language others can associate
with.
2. Use examples to showcase the practical value and long-term impact of design
Illustrate the impact of design
so that people can easily get
the message. Identify cases that
are relevant to your audience,
for example in the same sector
or country, and then use the
stories and evidence of outcomes
to demonstrate the impact that
design can have. You can find
relevant examples through the interactive
map.
3. Understand how putting people at the heart of your work ensures that solutions relate more to their needs
Design thinking enables deeper
user engagement, resulting in
solutions that are more
straightforward and enjoyable to
use. The products you use every
day are tuned to think about
your needs, and public services
should be designed in the same
way. Taking a human-centred
design approach to innovation
will foster a deeper level of
empathy with end users, helping
to define the right problems and
using prototyping to evolve the
right solutions.
4. Design is more than just an output: acknowledge the impact that it can have on broader culture
Many people enter the public
sector because they want to
change people’s lives for the
better, and user-centred design
practices align with that
motivation. Organisational
cultures can benefit from taking
a design-led approach to
innovation: it’s energising to
learn new skills, work
collaboratively and design
services that are more
user-centred. Think about how
you can persuasively tell the
story of how a design-led
approach could benefit your
organisation’s culture as a
whole, as well as specific
projects.
5. Identify key problems where a design thinking approach could make an obvious difference
Can you think of any particular problems where current approaches haven’t worked? Or issues where design thinking could add something new and valuable? These could be areas where you know that deeper user engagement could help you to reach a better definition of the problem itself, or projects with a lot of uncertainty (for example the need to design new systems for future population changes) where a prototyping approach could help you to make the issue more tangible. Read more about how to choose a project.