3. Design and deliver a joined-up experience

Users shouldn’t be excluded or have a poor experience because of the way government is structured, or because a service is only designed for digital channels.

You should start by understanding how users need to access your service and design an experience that works for them. This means you can provide a consistent experience across offline and online channels.

Putting the same value on every interaction people will have with your service means it’s less likely to fail, which is important for building trust with users.

How you do it

Be responsible for the whole service, not just the digital parts
Understand how people access your service and make sure you have a plan for all parts of it
Make sure the online and offline experience is the same
Use consistent design patterns, such as language and style, to help people understand where they are and what they need to do
Understand where improvements can be made
Put a plan in place to make improvements to processes, systems or structures when the service goes live

Links to detailed guidance:

The Scottish Government design system has reusable styles, components and patterns
You can find out more about content standards on the Digital Scotland Service Manual