No more mess! After 5 years, we stopped developing our own design component library and design system. Instead of contributing to more fragmentation, we adopt the KERN Design System wherever possible. Services we are developing at Digital Service will use all it offers. Plus, we are contributing to its extension and further development.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Maintaining countless design systems across the public sector makes no sense. It doesn\u2019t increase quality. It neither builds more trust among users nor makes financial sense. Yet it occurs throughout Germany and at all levels of government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Internationally, colleagues have demonstrated how things can work instead. The Dutch NL Design System has been adopted by various ministries and cities like Amsterdam, Utrecht, and Rotterdam. Italy\u2019s central design system is used all over the country, including local schools. Many federal departments and agencies in the United States have adopted the U.S. Web Design System. It is also used at the state level, such as in Iowa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For us, the decision to stop in-house development wasn\u2019t easy. We took our time. We hesitated at first. Our colleagues from the State of Schleswig-Holstein, the Senate Chancellery of City of Hamburg, and KERN Design System team started persuading us years ago. But we had to take a close look, and then another one. Over the years, we asked many questions and provided feedback. Then, last autumn, a small group of designers and engineers conducted an investigation into adopting an external design system. They developed criteria to judge them on. Eventually, our team thoroughly looked at the GOV.UK Design System and the KERN Design System. Both have different strengths and advantages. We decided on the homebrew option.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the public sector, a unified design system can unlock vast benefits. The GOV.UK Design System saves the UK taxpayer approximately \u00a336 million per year. The NHS design system reduces delivery times by up to 50%<\/a>, Tero just wrote. There is ample evidence that it enhances the usability and accessibility of services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Over the past few years, we learned that more than 30 design systems exist in the German public sector. The actual number is likely to be much higher. We, as DigitalService, taking this step isn\u2019t making a big difference. Many others have to take it, too, including the many form builder tools procured by local and state governments. The Federal Ministry for Digital & Government Modernisation will need to play an even bigger role in this through its D-Stack (Germany stack) work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, styles and components aren\u2019t enough to consistently develop good government services. That is why we looked further and started engaging with the GovStack service patterns as well. We hosted international workshops and had conversations with their expert UX working group. We are now working towards bringing patterns informed by GovStack into the KERN Design System.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The blog post about this journey is now published<\/a>. It reflects the work of many. Take a look, and let us know where you stand on the journey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Trialling an iterated Service Standard introduction workshop, we visited the city of Potsdam to consult with a joint team in charge of 2 services: hunting permits and fishing licenses. Together, they represented 4 different organisations \u2013 including state ministry, district government, a local government association and the state-owned IT supplier. They were interested in learning about the Service Standard and checking with us how well they are working towards meeting its points.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Robert, project lead and product manager for the Service Standard work, and I thought 3 hours were plenty. We were wrong. After providing an overview of the standard and setting the scene, we offered some individual reading time before allowing the 9 participants to look further into the 13 points of the standard and what they require teams to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Individually, they went on to mark each requirement of every standard point either red, amber or green. We had a group-wide playback and discussed these ratings. I had to hold back from asking all too many distracting questions as I was eager to learn about their efforts of the past 5+ years. They demonstrated considerable progress in various areas, but also have work to do. We agreed on spending more time with them remotely. I also wondered how we might be able to help, particularly with point 1, \u2018Understanding users and identifying needs<\/a>\u2019. I want to explore the possibility of offering user research support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I enjoy working with service teams. It\u2019s what I did as a service assessor in the UK, and here I can do similar work. Hopefully, we can scale it further. It\u2019s well worth the investment of time.<\/p>\n\n\n\nSupporting local and state government in applying the Service Standard<\/h2>\n\n\n\n