I love our A3 printer. Some time ago, we purchased it just for the design discipline. It\u2019s physically hidden on the second floor, and when people find it as an available printer in their print dialogue, it tells them \u2018design only\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This week, I used the printer to create 16 mini posters. Each contains one service quality criterion. The service quality criteria aren\u2019t published on the internet yet. But they are pretty final. Colleagues from the Federal Ministry for Digital and State Modernisation have already shared them at a few summer events in Berlin. Now, we are using them for the new brand new version of the \u2018Introduction to Service Design\u2019 training.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We developed the criteria earlier this year in a highly participatory fashion involving hundreds of people \u2013 both citizens and public servants. I had not looked at the criteria since April. When setting the posters, I was delighted to read the 16 statements in plain language. They are sensible; they are sharp. They reminded me of Dieter Rams\u2019s 10 principles of good design.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I am curious to see how participants in next week\u2019s training will respond to them and how they will judge the progress of their own work against the criteria. Previously, we used the UK government version of Lou Downe\u2019s principles of good services<\/a>. Since we now have a German equivalent, I am glad we can use it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I very much wanted us to get all-green ticks. Unfortunately, that didn\u2019t happen. I asked our colleagues at BFIT, the German federal monitoring body for accessibility, for quick support as we plan to publish a new service shortly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 2 weeks ago, Marion and I did 90 minutes of manual testing, during which we found some issues. The service team was quick at addressing these. Once that was done, I was rather confident that we could have external experts inspect what we have produced. Within less than 2 weeks after reaching out, we received the short report this week. It came back with a \u2018not pass\u2019 verdict.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Engineer Leonie, designer Agnieszka and I sat down on Thursday to review the report\u2019s findings. Some points were expected. We don\u2019t have German sign language and an Easy Read page set up yet. These are mandatory and commissioned, but they aren\u2019t linked in the tested build yet. There is also a PDF that the central tax service creates that isn\u2019t fully accessible, unfortunately. Our service only transfers data via an API. But we cannot influence how the file is generated. We will rely on the tax service to fix it. Some other issues our BFIT colleagues found were related to our mock of the digital identity integration and a deep jump into certain pages. These aren\u2019t part of the live service either.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After an initial feeling of shock and disappointment, we realised the team had done very robust work and that there were only minor things to address. Most things were already completed by the end of the week. And the team looked at an accelerated approach to creating an interim German sign language video. We will update the accessibility statement to address the remaining items and swiftly commission a full accessibility audit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Service designer Charlie Fountaine<\/a> coordinated some great work during Service Week 2026. She ran a co-creation session to develop prototyping principles with folks from across the UK government. Some 124 people contributed to the work, she wrote in an article<\/a>. Charlie shared how they came about and how she iterated them based on the feedback and contributions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When I shared the related poster on Slack a few days ago, it received cheerful emoji reactions. So, this week, in our design-only bi-weekly session, I brought the poster and turned it into a little workshop. I was interested in understanding how well our designers think they are meeting the principles, as well as in gathering questions, discussion points, and anecdotes.<\/p>\n\n\n\nReceiving a \u2018not pass\u2019 in an accessibility audit<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Discussing prototype principles<\/h2>\n\n\n\n