It’s Christmas week. I did not work.
But I noted 10 things from 2024 that I’m grateful for and proud of:
- Our user-centred design team grew by 75% in 2024. End of last year, we were 20 people. Today, we are 35. No one left is. Everyone is doing vital work.
- Our user research sub-discipline grew by factor 6. Last year, it was only Sonja. Now, we have 6 user researchers—working on justice, tax and family benefit services.
- We established content design as a dedicated role and sub-discipline. From early summer to mid-autumn, we had 3 content designers join us.
- We matured our accessibility practice, shaped processes, and developed custom tools that help us and others.
- We developed and iterated our Delivery Principles.
- We launched multiple services this year: 3 justice services, 1 improved family benefits calculator, and an internal system for federal courts.
- We got service designers as part of cross-functional teams to support lawmakers in making digital-ready legislation – moving user-centred design as far upstream as ever before.
- We revived the German Service Standard and started working on its first update since its launch in 2020 – together with the Federal Ministry of the Interior. He also expanded our peer reviews. They now include peers from other public sector organisations, and we review services developed by any organisation.
- We returned to co-organising conferences within our International Design in Government community, meeting in Helsinki in October.
- We continued our community of practice work with 3 local, public-facing meetups, 4 cross-government gatherings and monthly user research exchanges.
There are various other things worth mentioning, but these are the 10 highlights.
Thanks and greetings to everyone I was able to work with this year. It was a busy and productive year.