It was big fun and a big challenge to condense all our learnings about form design at @digitalservice.bund.de into a couple of guidelines. We're now very excited to see how it helps people across different government units to build better forms faster.

Useful looking talk this Friday: ‘How to create content-informed personas for better UX’ — covering: • Look at personas from a content lens • Break down user tasks into content needs • Identify content gaps H/t @maredwards.bsky.social #contentDesign #UX

Earliest public services ever? The Government of Barbados 🇧🇧 has made 12 services publicly available at an alpha stage, acknowledging that they will still change significantly in the coming months. @amymcnichol.bsky.social from @publicdigital.bsky.social & Mark Boyce sharing more in their blog post

As a public servant, I write weekly notes to let people see what I do. #ServiceStandard work continued in my week 197, with more guidance published, more interaction #design and content support arriving, and #serviceQuality work soon involving big citizen workshops. (👋🏻 @weeknotes-bot.bsky.social)

#FixTheForms, as @cjforms.bsky.social puts it. In the absence of universal standards within German government for what constitutes good #formDesign, we published 3 new pieces of guidance to address this void. You find them in the handbook section of the German #ServiceStandard website. 1/X

Lifting a #govTech newspaper made my heart jump a little! Cause there is an unseen consistency in the government domains listed – referencing 2 .gov.de subdomains. As a small team at @digitalservice.bund.de has been supporting the pilot phase of the cross-gov’t identity and design system since May

#DesignJob klaxon 🔔 A new #UX specialist position has opened at the tax and revenue office in Kassel. The role is open until 15 February 2026. 4 more roles are currently listed on my German #GovDesign job board – at @bundestag.de, DRV BW, Bay. LKA: 👇🏻 verwaltungsgestaltung.de#positionen

Government services that deliver for people – that’s the focus of a new workstream of the Federal Ministry for Digital Transformation & Government Modernisation, which we are supporting. Through wide-ranging participation, we’re defining what makes a #goodService. bmds.bund.de/themen/staat... 1/X

Microsoft launched its #InclusiveDesign website It includes plenty of great resources for people who want to design accessible products and services, including tools and powerful real-life stories inclusive.microsoft.design Well done, @annaecook.com and team!

Big mistake from #LinkedIn – limiting the number of personalised invitations to 3 per month. This only results in worse interactions on the platform and decontextualised requests – which I personally always decline.

It’s tough being a junior service designer entering the market. I just talked to a recent graduate who is looking across Europe and even internationally. They didn’t find much. They don’t want to apply for slightly more common junior #UX design roles, given they completed their #serviceDesign MA.

How is your day going so far? I sent a colleague this classic GDS #contentDesign poster after a ministerial stakeholder argued that against “every coarsening and simplification of language, because the state should use correct (and, where applicable, legal) terms” 1/X

It’s always insightful to hear others talk about the work you’re involved in In January, a brown bag meeting at digital government competence network NEGZ discussed the German #ServiceStandard & #DINSPEC66336 – in German 🇩🇪 Some 200+ people joined, and it’s been recorded and is available on YouTube

Immigration offices are among the most stressful places in a city. Emotions run high cause life decisions are getting made. Navigating a huge building when you’re stressed isn’t an extra you need. That’s probably why Berlin invested in a bold signage system for its State Office for Immigration.

How is your #weeknoting going? Sometimes it’s hard. Sometimes I don’t feel it or have the time to write more than a few bullet points. But somehow, I did publish 52 notes in 2025, 1 each week. I then counted, and it’s 58,004 words written. Hence, the reflections of a year are almost a little book

As a public servant, I write weekly notes to let people see what I do. I spoke with representatives from several states and larger municipalities curious about the #ServiceStandard. I also participated in 3 separate 2026 planning & roadmapping sessions—with teams and our discipline leadership team

It’s good to hope for something. Following @olu.online’s example, I wrote down my hopes (for the work context) for the first time in early 2025. This week, I shared my 26 hopes for 2026 with our design & user research team. They added plenty of emojis. 👇 verwaltungsgestaltung.de/notizen/2026...

Who got taxpayers’ money? The Government of Cyprus is doing an excellent job at increasing transparency for service design and development. For the 28 services that are compliant with their #ServiceStandard so far, you can see who made them – PWC, EY, in-house: dsf.dmrid.gov.cy/service-stan...

One of the best takes on non-sensical product and service developments: “Protobot is very simple: it generates a product idea by matching a random product category with a random constraint.” — by the great Molly Claire Wilson: protobot.org#en

How to support 50 people in your discipline as a design leader? Today, our little #design and #userResearch leadership team at @digitalservice.bund.de got together to review 2025 and look ahead into 2026. The team consists of principals Charlotte and Sonja, people partner Annemie and me.

Standards won’t do anything unless integrated into a larger system that includes carrots & sticks. Today, we shaped our 2026 activities for the German #ServiceStandard. My product management colleague Robert asked for a short input on what worked in the UK. I made that slide. All remains relevant

The #NoMouse Challenge is a global effort to raise awareness about accessible web design. Try using your website without a mouse. Use the keyboard instead. Is it possible to access all features and operate all buttons, sliders, and other controls? nomouse.org

How often do you engage in cross-silo exchange? How often do you talk to colleagues and other teams doing similar work as you do, but in different organisations and contexts? Today, our #ServiceStandard team spoke with @benaldo.bsky.social , and it was worth every one of the 60 minutes we had.

I love a good government #barcamp! And #NEGZ is doing a great job at making it as open and inclusive as possible. We’ll be running a #ServiceStandard workshop as part of tomorrow’s event. Join us in the late morning – remotely!

“What we put into the world, as action or artefact, is how the world is made. Design is a way of engaging with the greater conversation of how to live together on a planet with limited resources. Design is thus politics.” @mikegallagher.bsky.social

As a public servant, I write weekly notes to let people see what I do. Kicking off 2026 for the #userResearch sub-discipline, I participated in a half-day onsite to look ahead. I also helped facilitate a 2-day workshop on a substantial extension to a #ServiceStandard. 👋🏻 @weeknotes-bot.bsky.social

“How much #userResearch can a team handle?”, a user researcher asked today. “Sometimes, we can overwhelm a team. Then, we find – depending on our individual strengths and interests – other areas we can add value” 💡

Our #ServiceStandard work doesn’t end just because we have a standard that’s baked into a formal regulation. We are acutely aware of gaps in guidance, training offerings and the wider service support system. That is why we went into workshop mode again for the last 2 days to address existing gaps.

What a terrific exchange with our Cyprian 🇨🇾 colleagues today! They are doing fantastic work in the #ServiceStandard assurance space, and their approaches have evolved much since GDS supported them. The best thing: They work entirely in the open. All tools, checklists and reports are public. 1/X

As a public servant, I write weekly notes to let people see what I do. In my first full working week, I participated in a 2-day leadership offsite, interviewed more #serviceDesign candidates and prepared new publications. 👋🏻 @weeknotes-bot.bsky.social verwaltungsgestaltung.de/notizen/2026...

#DesignJobs update: The Institute for Federal Real Estate in Berlin is seeking a user-centred person to join its innovation lab. The candidate will design services & strategies. In the meantime, our service design role at @digitalservice.bund.de has now closed. verwaltungsgestaltung.de#positionen

New #GovDesign openings and #DesignJobs across Germany and the German public sector: 🎨 Graphic and motion designer at @bundestag.de (Berlin) 📱 UX/UI expert for iOS at Bavarian Police (Munich) 🖱️ UX/UI designer at state pension provider DRV BW (Stuttgart) verwaltungsgestaltung.de#positionen

Wikipedia turns 25 today! 🎂📚 To celebrate, we’re looking back at its baby pictures—some of the earliest captures of the site, preserved in the #WaybackMachine. Take a nostalgic peek at early Wikipedia ⤵️ web.archive.org/web/20030301... #WikipediaDay #Wikipedia25 @wikipedia.org

Open roadmaps and publicly sharing performance indicators are what we aim for in all our work at @digitalservice.bund.de. @beliebig.eu and team show how it’s done – for the emerging Policy Excellence Centre (‘Zentrum für Legistik’) of the German Federal government: zfl.bund.de/zahlen-und-f... 1/X

We are discussing high-contrast mode in today’s joint session of software engineering, design and user research. Engineer Pram and #accessibility designer Marion lead the hands-on session and share their learning from working on justice services with our disciplines. 38 colleagues are participating

Somehow astonishing: Even after more than a decade of GOV.UK, people use fake websites with addresses like ‘dartcrossingcharges.co.uk’ to pay fees and then receive penalties afterwards. Is this making the strengthened case for the app wrapper? Cause users are less likely to get defrauded?

I said it before: Friday is my international exchange day. Today, I was in touch with #GovDesign colleagues: • in Cyprus 🇨🇾 government on #ServiceStandard procurement and assurance • at NHS 🇬🇧 about accessing advanced #userResearch training • at the UN University 🇺🇳 on quality assurance

I love seeing people move across the public sector! While it may seem like a loss for one organisation at first, it’s more likely to strengthen its bonds and expand its network — if it actively supports the moves of its people. 1/X

It took just over 10 years to migrate all my devices – laptops, tablet, and phone – to USB-C. Having a single plug for charging and data transfer gives such peace of mind when travelling. At the same time, it also makes so many well-working cables obsolete again and creates electronic waste.

We are revisiting design critiques in our first design team meeting of the year. We are discussing @borism.bsky.social’s 2022 article → borism.medium.com/design-criti..., bits from the book ‘Discussing design’ by Adam Connor and Aaron Irzarry, and GDS’s tips posters: github.com/alphagov/gov...

“What Doge was doing was not trying to take the operations of government and make it more efficient. They were basically just trying to come in and almost randomly sort of decide that they were going to just eliminate a significant number of things that the government does” H/t Arianne Miller

Thanks for sending this over, @publicdigital.bsky.social! Looking forward to reading your essays, @kwastell.bsky.social @benterrett.bsky.social @egawen.bsky.social

Finally up: After 8 years, my brother-in-law put up the Neutra House Numbers. They are made from anodised aluminium, refined by the font designers from House Industries after designs by Richard Neutra in the 1930s. Currently, Herman Miller has a discount store.hermanmiller.com/decor-house-...

I am underwhelmed. After 6 years, I have refreshed my pre-pandemic iPhone. What was once an exciting moment of experiencing technological progress and observing creative ingenuity is now a ‘So, what?’ moment. Without the phone damaged beyond repair, I would not have seen a reason for replacement.

A nice button: a physical dial to lower the volume of the train service announcement in a Swiss SBB carriage. It makes satisfying clicks.

As a public servant, I write weekly notes to let people see what I do. Today, I’m wrapping up work for 2025. I got a blog post on service thinking and #serviceDesign out, and put our activities in the context of the Federal government’s modernisation agenda. And as delivery heads, we had lunch.

Wow! A woman on the train, sitting in front of me, is actually reading articles on Grokipedia on her laptop. I didn’t assume anyone would actually use that. She is reading about electronic musicans and music styles, while making music in ‘Live’.

How #ServiceDesign and good services contribute to more trust in the state: Sabrina @feuerherd.bsky.social and I blogged in German 🇩🇪 on the @digitalservice.bund.de blog. We give an overview of whole services approaches and looked at studies from @oecdgovernance.bsky.social and @initiatived21.de.

Update: 3 out of 5 blog posts listed in August are written. 2 of them are published; the other one follows tomorrow. I’m aiming to get a 4th still out later this year. This public commitment helps.

“Service design does a lot of things, but it doesn’t do anything alone.” — Alistair Greo #ServiceDesign H/t @claragt.bsky.social