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The Journey to the Interface project

The Journey to the Interface project Picture

How service design can connect users to reform

Drawing on all of our public services work of the last three years, as well as over fifty interviews with service innovators in the public, commercial and voluntary sectors, this project explores the emerging discipline of service design, and what it has to offer to ways of approaching the transformation of public services.
Drawing on all of our public services work of the last three years, as well as over fifty interviews with service innovators in the public, commercial and voluntary sectors, this project explores the emerging discipline of service design, and what it has to offer to ways of approaching the transformation of public services.

With the kind support of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, we have spent the last 6 months thinking, interviewing, doing workshops, running seminars and writing a report, The Journey to the Interface: how service design can connect users to reform.

There are several core themes that we explore in this report:
  • How organisations are using a range of methods - from segmentation through to the development of 'user journeys' to get a deeper and richer sense of how services look from the perspective of the people needing to use them
  • The place of professionals in closing the gap between what service organisations do, and what people want and need. You can read more about other work Demos has done on professionalism here
  • The ways in which the most innovative service organisations are measuring success. They combine 'system measures' - like the targets which have dominated debates about public services in the UK - with 'experience metrics' that go well beyond satisfaction as a means of understanding how, in practice, services are interacting with people's lives.
Taken together, these three elements present exciting opportunities for all existing service organisations.

But we believe that if the principles of service design were applied systemically, to the whole process of public service reform itself, then it's possible to imagine new forms of value, and of service, emerging. It's the transformative potential of service design that Demos is really excited about exploring next.

This report is being launched on 6th July between 1815 and 2000. Ed Balls MP will be making a key note speech, and it is an opportunity to meet other people with an interest in service design and public service reform. If you'd like to attend, let us know at servicedesign@demos.co.uk.

There are a number of ways in which we would like to develop this work in coming months. If you're interested in getting involved, please email sophia.parker@demos.co.uk