In his week 209, Martin recorded an accessibility podcast, participated in concept testing sessions for the Service Standard and met a UX designer from the State Pension provider. He also ran into colleagues in the public sector with strong views on government branding – some demanding greater boldness, others purposeful blandness.
Category: English
Meetup: Remaking the welfare state
On 25 March, the 12th edition of the ongoing ‘Öffentliches Gestalten’ meetup series discussed ‘Remaking the welfare state’. The evening included 4 speakers and 3 talks. They showed ongoing research and design work in housing benefits, as well as education and participation benefits for children.
Week #208 at the Digital Service: Notes for 20–24 April
Martin spent 3 days in Brussels attending PolyFutures, an event organised by the European Commission, during his week 208 at Digital Service. He also attended a jobs-to-be-done reunion meetup and spent more time writing articles.
Week #207 at the Digital Service: Notes for 13–17 April
In week 207, Martin discussed AI to speed up service delivery and planned Global Accessibility Awareness Day. He also travelled to Brussels to attend the PolyFutures event next week.
Week #206 at the Digital Service: Notes for 6–10 April
Martin wrote good parts of a blog post on Digital Service’s delivery principles in week 209. He collaborated on various websites in the making, and he wrote another service design conference pitch.
Week #205 at the Digital Service: Notes for 30 March–3 April
Martin’s week 205 at Digital Service also marked 10 years in the public sector. During the week, he sketched a design pattern, interviewed more content designers, and discussed a German version of the GOV.UK Prototype Kit.
Week #204 at the Digital Service: Notes for 23–27 March
Martin gave a talk about good digital governance to members of parliament of the Kingdom of Bhutan. He also co-hosted an open meetup on the future of the welfare state, and he co-ran a workshop on designing services around life events
Week #203 at the Digital Service: Notes for 16–20 March
In week 203, Martin spent half of it in London. He met with various former colleagues and other curious minds to discuss cross-silo service transformation, the use of AI in service design, and working in the open. He wrote more proposals for talks and a journal.
Week #202 at the Digital Service: Notes for 9–13 March
In week 202 at Digital Service, Martin helped with facilitating a 2-day workshop on service quality criteria with cross-government colleagues. He also wrote conference submissions and discussed new guidance, blog posts and a citizen survey.
Week #201 at the Digital Service: Notes for 2–6 March
Martin kicked off several initiatives during his week #201 at Digital Service, including new guidance, new websites, a support hotline, a blog post, and a white paper. He participated in another Service Standard introduction workshop and attended official events on AI and digital transformation.