Louise Downe - Good Services: How to Design Services That Work

To the designers in the UK government, whose commitment to building better services has meant that this book was an idea in the first place.

To my wife Sarah, without whom this book would be just another idea on my ever-growing list.

And to Mum and Dad, whose unwavering support has meant its been possible for me to have ideas that turn into books.

Be easy to find

Clearly explain its purpose

Set a users expectations of the service

Enable each user to complete the outcome they set out to do

Work in a way that is familiar

Require no prior knowledge to use

Be agnostic of organisational structures

Require the minimum possible steps to complete

Be consistent throughout

Have no dead ends

Be usable by everyone, equally

Encourage the right behaviours from users and service providers

Quickly respond to change

Clearly explain why a decision has been made

Make it easy to get human assistance

Foreword
Mike Monteiro

There used to be a tree in front of our house. It was, by the entire neighbourhoods admission, a very ugly tree. It had greyish bark, sticky sickly looking leaves, a generally unpleasing shape, and didnt appear to be in the best of health. But it was our tree. It blocked the afternoon sun from our living room, and our dog liked to pee on it. We were glad to have it.

Then a large branch fell. A thick, heavy branch. Right onto a neighbours car. Luckily, no one got hurt. The neighbours car was a little dented, which he wasnt happy about but, all in all, it couldve been a lot worse. Life went back to normal. People went back to parking under the tree, and dogs went back to peeing on it. Until a few weeks later there was a heavy wind and another branch came down. The trees time had come. A city worker came by and taped a notice to the tree, alerting us that it was marked for removal. I wasnt happy to lose the tree, but it was obvious the tree was now dangerous and had to go. Luckily, the notice contained a URL where I could go to ask the city for a new tree.

This is where our story takes a dark turn.

Years of dealing with local government services websites have taught me a few things. First, make sure you are alone, because you are going to get angry. Second, have your anxiety medication nearby. Carve out at least half a day. Make sure the dogs water bowl is full. Update your will. And alert your neighbours to ignore the screams. If they look worried, just tell them youre using a local government website. Watch as their concern turns to pity. Some of them may offer to bring you meals.

Sadly, all that preparation was in vain, because the first thing I found out on the new tree website was that, before I could get a new tree, I had to request a stump removal. Which was handled by a different department, on a different website. Also, I didnt have a stump yet. I still had an ugly yet beloved tree. I had to wait until I had a stump.

Two weeks later, workers came, cut down the tree and left a stump. I had my prerequisite for getting a new tree. I went to the stump removal website, and asked them to remove my stump. A week later, they did. Which meant that I could now go to the new tree website to request a new tree. First question: is this a replacement tree? Easy enough. Has the stump been removed? Oh, yes! So much progress. Third question: what kind of tree do you want? Reader, there was a drop-down list. I clicked.

Lets take a nature break. Do you know how many types of trees there are? There are a lot. There are deciduous trees, which lose their leaves with the seasons, and evergreen trees, which do not. In addition there are palm trees, banana trees and, oddly, bamboo is a tree. I didnt know that. But I do now. Because it was listed in that drop-down list. Along with every other tree on earth. They were all in the list. Including sequoias. Now, Im the kind of jerk that if someone is willing to plant a sequoia in front of my house, Ill take it. So I said, yes, give me a sequoia.

A week later I got an email that said, no, you cannot have a sequoia. Its not the right kind of tree for your neighbourhood. Ok, well, I guess thats on me. I knew I was being a jerk when I selected it. But its also on you, for having it on the list. Regardless, I probably knew I shouldnt have asked for a sequoia. I went back to the list. I picked something else, I think it was an oak tree, because that sounded like a non-jerk choice. A week later: no, you cannot have an oak. I tried again. Cypress? (Possibly because I was listening to Cypress Hill.) Again, no. Wrong tree. Why couldnt the city just tell me what kind of tree I could have? This went on for a while, until one day I came home to find the city had cemented over the whole thing, and some kid had written LORD SALAMANDER in the wet cement.

I never got a tree.

In this particular case, as much as I enjoyed my ugly tree, it wasnt a catastrophic loss. It was annoying. But the same city that runs that online service also runs services for starting small businesses, getting married, jury duty, the municipal courts and law enforcement. And I guarantee you those are designed just as well. And thats just the city stuff.

Every day, all over the world, people go online to accomplish things. Theyre signing up for stuff. Theyre checking their finances. Theyre getting tickets to something. Theyre making medical appointments and, if theyre in the US, theyre checking to see whether their insurance company covers a procedure they need. Theyre checking on their citizenship application status. Theyre applying to schools and trying to see if they qualify for a loan so they can afford it.

For the most part, no one wants to be doing these things. Theyre not exciting. Theyre tolls for existence. We want to get through them as quickly as possible so we can get back to the stuff we actually want to do. Sadly, using these services too often turns into a frustrating experience. Made all the more frustrating because you didnt want to be doing it anyway.

Heres where we come in. If youre reading this book, its probably because you have something to do with designing services of one sort or another. And Im gonna go out on a limb and assume that youre the type of person who cares about doing this right, because, duh, youre reading a book about it. And youre looking for help in doing the right thing. Well, I have good news for you. This book is going to help. Ive read it! Its well-written. Its helpful. And its brilliant. And its written to help you help others do what they need.

Lou Downe has been designing good services for quite a while. And theyre good at it! I cant tell you how many times I got stuck trying to solve something and thought: Well, lets go see how GOV.UK solved it. I have no doubt that Lou is a good designer, because Ive stolen their work more than once. But as much as Lou cares about design, I think they care about people even more. And thats the secret. Youve got to care more about the people on the other end of the screen than about whats on the screen. Youve got to help them get on with their day. So they can do the stuff that really matters to them.

Some people say that good design is invisible. That when its done right you shouldnt notice it. I say theyre looking in the wrong place. Turn around. Good design is very visible. Its visible on the face of every person whos ever used a well-designed service. The slightly raised eyebrow that says, huh, I expected that to be a lot harder, followed by a recognition that they just reclaimed some time to read a book, or play with their kid, or walk their dog whatever it is they actually want to do. Thats good design. Its pretty visible. You just need to know where to look.