Government & Compliance
Digital service standards: what good public services look like online
Principles that governments have adopted for designing online services, and how agencies can apply them.
Several governments have published digital service standards: sets of principles for how online public services should be designed and run. They are useful guides for any agency building or buying a resident-facing service.
Common principles
Start with user needs. Research how residents actually try to complete the task, and design for that rather than for the agency's org chart.
Make it simple. One task at a time, plain language, no unnecessary steps or fields.
Make it accessible. Meet WCAG standards and test with assistive technology and real users with disabilities.
Make it work on a phone. Many residents' only computer is a phone.
Use data responsibly. Collect only what is needed, protect it, and explain how it is used.
Be secure by design. Security is part of the design, not a review at the end.
Measure and improve. Completion rates, time to complete, error rates, and satisfaction, monitored continuously.
Iterate. Release early, learn, and improve rather than launching a finished product that is never touched again.
Open by default. Open standards, open data, and where appropriate open source.
Own the service. A named person is responsible for the service's performance.
Applying them in procurement
Write these principles into solicitations as requirements: user research, accessibility conformance, mobile design, analytics, and a service owner. Evaluate vendors on how they will meet them, and verify during acceptance.
Applying them in operations
Publish service metrics. Review them regularly. Fund continuous improvement rather than only initial build.
Why it matters
Residents compare government services to every other service they use. Standards give agencies a clear definition of good and a way to hold themselves and vendors to it.