{"id":5797,"date":"2026-01-04T23:40:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-04T22:40:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/verwaltungsgestaltung.de\/notizen\/?p=5797"},"modified":"2026-01-29T23:02:41","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T22:02:41","slug":"week-192-at-the-digital-service-notes-for-29-december-2025-2-january-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/verwaltungsgestaltung.de\/notizen\/2026\/01\/04\/week-192-at-the-digital-service-notes-for-29-december-2025-2-january-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"Week #192 at the Digital Service: Notes for 29 December 2025\u20132 January 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

And there we are! 2026 is here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I had to rest up the week after getting sick.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I did take some time to write down 26 hopes for 2026 \u2013 following last year\u2019s practice<\/a>, inspired by Olu<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Formulating hopes for 2026<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Here are my hopes for the new year:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  1. I hope we can manage the expected growth in the discipline and projects in the most healthy and sustainable way.

    <\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. I hope we can smooth out our design and user research operations as we continue to grow, including structures, formats and processes.

    <\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. I hope that, whatever the growth of the user-centred design discipline this year, we will remain close as a group who know each other and can rely on each other.

    <\/li>\n\n\n\n
  4. I hope we can clarify career paths for everyone in our user-centred discipline to a high degree of satisfaction.

    <\/li>\n\n\n\n
  5. I hope we can create new artefacts and formats that help others better understand our discipline\u2019s work and its value.

    <\/li>\n\n\n\n
  6. I hope we can raise the profile of the Service Standard as a mandated instrument across all levels of government.

    <\/li>\n\n\n\n
  7. I hope we can significantly expand the handbook section of the Service Standard web offering, adding many valuable pieces of guidance.

    <\/li>\n\n\n\n
  8. I hope we can refine our user-centred design leadership approach and share it with colleagues in the wider public sector.

    <\/li>\n\n\n\n
  9. I hope we can establish a well-regarded blogging platform for the German public sector.

    <\/li>\n\n\n\n
  10. I hope we can practically join forces with other public sector colleagues and pool resources and insights to get some shared components finally fixed.

    <\/li>\n\n\n\n
  11. I hope we can create a narrowly focused \u2018start a business\u2019 service that we can then nicely grow in scope over time.

    <\/li>\n\n\n\n
  12. I hope we can design more than one service explicitly linked to a wider life event.

    <\/li>\n\n\n\n
  13. I hope we can establish meaningful exchanges on life events across government, informed by and in dialogue with the EU and the OECD.

    <\/li>\n\n\n\n
  14. I hope we can extract lessons from our policy and service design work to create a comprehensive, integrated framework for us and others to work with.

    <\/li>\n\n\n\n
  15. I hope we can make the justice data platform a well-visible example of open government data sets.

    <\/li>\n\n\n\n
  16. I hope we can develop and publish the first page templates and service patterns, which then gain traction and be used by others in the sector.

    <\/li>\n\n\n\n
  17. I hope we can launch several services with the cross-government design and identity system, demonstrating the power of consistency.

    <\/li>\n\n\n\n
  18. I hope we can help government sort its brands and branding.

    <\/li>\n\n\n\n
  19. I hope we can systemise our approach to inclusive research and build the processes and capabilities to support it.

    <\/li>\n\n\n\n
  20. I hope we can set new standards for plain language across all of the services we look after.

    <\/li>\n\n\n\n
  21. I hope we can gain proper traction with the gov.de and establish a scalable taxonomy for it.

    <\/li>\n\n\n\n
  22. I hope we can use the forthcoming service quality criteria as a springboard for a broader, deeper establishment of a service lens across the federal government.

    <\/li>\n\n\n\n
  23. I hope we can demonstrate, through the justice service portal, how to implement a service platform approach in a truly good and effective way.

    <\/li>\n\n\n\n
  24. I hope we can strengthen our links to other national public sector teams through visits and exchanges.

    <\/li>\n\n\n\n
  25. I hope we can run an in-person event connecting public sector design teams in Germany.

    <\/li>\n\n\n\n
  26. I hope we can make a positive, tangible difference for people in this country on a larger scale.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    I will review these hopes by the end of the year, as I did for my 2025 hopes in last week\u2019s note<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Reading others write about design<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    When arriving in London on Thursday morning, I found my physical copy of \u2018Competitive advantage by design<\/a>\u2019, a small publication from the GDS founders at Public Digital, waiting for me. I ordered it a few weeks back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    While reading through it, I realised it\u2019s not really for me. It\u2019s for their clients in the public, private, or third sectors who are intrigued by user-centred design but don\u2019t yet fully grasp it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The booklet contains easy-to-read introductions to service design, content transformation, and user research. It communicates the basics very well and makes the approach accessible. It\u2019s a great little publication to sell user-centred design services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n

    Thanks for sending this over, @publicdigital.bsky.social! Looking forward to reading your essays, @kwastell.bsky.social @benterrett.bsky.social @egawen.bsky.social<\/p>— Martin Jordan (@martinjordan.com)<\/a> 2026-01-01T14:40:18.459Z<\/a><\/blockquote>