Good Services

Downe led design in the UK Government Digital Service and distilled that experience into fifteen principles for a service that works. Each principle gets a short chapter, covering matters such as being easy to find, explaining its purpose in the user's own words, setting expectations about what happens next, and behaving consistently whichever channel someone uses. The framing treats a service as the whole thing a person is trying to do rather than the interface in front of them, which is why so many principles turn out to be about names, decisions and the organisation behind the screen. Written in plain language, illustrated, and short enough to hand to a stakeholder who will not read a textbook. A good bridge between product thinking and service design.