Redesigning a Government service based on User Needs and Feedback

Public services are most effective when they are shaped around the needs of the people who use them. Yet many services evolve over time through policy changes, operational pressures, and legacy systems rather than deliberate design. This can leave organisations with processes that technically function but fail to deliver a clear, accessible experience for users.

Our consultancy was engaged by a UK public sector organisation to support the redesign of a high-volume digital service used by citizens and internal operational teams. The service played an important role in enabling users to submit applications, manage key information, and interact with the organisation through a digital channel. While the service had grown organically over several years, stakeholders recognised that it was becoming increasingly difficult for users to navigate and complete key tasks.

The organisation wanted to improve the accessibility, usability, and efficiency of the service while ensuring it remained aligned with modern digital government standards. There was also a strong desire to ensure that future improvements were grounded in real evidence about user behaviour rather than assumptions about how the service should work.

Our consultancy supported the organisation through an end-to-end redesign effort, combining user research, service design, business analysis, and iterative product development. Working alongside internal teams, we helped the organisation understand the true experience of its users, identify structural barriers within the service, and redesign critical journeys to better meet user needs.

The engagement ran over several phases across approximately nine months, beginning with a comprehensive discovery effort and progressing through iterative design and service improvements. Throughout the project, our focus remained consistent: ensuring that every design decision could be traced back to validated user insight and measurable service outcomes.

“From the outset, they embedded themselves as part of the delivery team rather than operating as an external consultancy. Their researchers, designers, and analysts worked alongside our staff day-to-day, building strong relationships and sharing methods openly. By the end of the engagement, our team not only had a better service, but also a clearer understanding of how to continue improving it ourselves.”

Head of Digital Delivery

The Problem

At first glance, the service appeared to function adequately. Transactions were being processed, users were able to submit applications, and operational teams were managing requests within existing processes. However, beneath this surface stability there were clear signs that the service was struggling to meet user expectations.

Completion rates were lower than anticipated for several critical journeys, suggesting that users were abandoning the service before finishing their tasks. Support teams were also receiving a high volume of enquiries from users who were confused about the application process or unsure how to proceed at certain points within the system.

Internally, teams had developed workarounds to compensate for gaps in the digital experience. Manual checks, additional verification steps, and offline communications had gradually become embedded within operational processes. While these workarounds helped ensure that outcomes could still be delivered, they introduced inefficiencies and created additional workload for operational staff.

Accessibility was another area of concern. Early indicators suggested that some users were struggling to interact with the service, particularly those using assistive technologies or accessing the system through mobile devices. In a public sector context—where services must be inclusive and accessible to all citizens—this represented a significant risk.

One of the underlying challenges was that the organisation did not yet have a comprehensive understanding of how users experienced the service end-to-end. Existing documentation focused primarily on internal processes rather than the user journey itself. This meant that design decisions had historically been shaped by operational needs rather than validated user insight.

For the organisation, the question was not simply how to improve the interface of the service. The deeper challenge was understanding how the service actually worked from the perspective of its users, and how it could be redesigned to better align with their needs while maintaining operational integrity.

Research and Discovery

Our consultancy began the project with a comprehensive discovery phase designed to build a clear, evidence-based understanding of the service ecosystem.

The first step was to work closely with internal stakeholders to understand the service from an organisational perspective. This involved structured workshops with policy teams, operational staff, digital delivery leads, and technical teams. Each group offered a different perspective on the service—ranging from policy intent to operational realities and technical constraints.

These conversations revealed an important insight: different parts of the organisation often held different mental models of how the service worked. While each perspective was valid within its context, there was no shared, holistic view of the service experience.

To address this, our team began mapping the service landscape. This included identifying the systems involved, the operational processes supporting the service, and the touch-points where users interacted with the organisation.

Alongside this internal exploration, user research became the central pillar of the discovery effort. Our user researchers conducted a series of moderated research sessions with individuals who had recently used the service. Participants were recruited to reflect the diversity of the service’s user base, including those with varying levels of digital confidence and accessibility needs.

These sessions provided invaluable insight into how users interpreted the service and where they encountered friction. In several cases, users struggled to understand key terminology or were uncertain about the information being requested from them. In other instances, they were forced to navigate complex journeys that did not align with the way they naturally approached the task.

What emerged was a clear picture of a service that had gradually become more complex than necessary. While each individual component had been introduced with good intentions, the cumulative effect was a user experience that required significant cognitive effort to navigate.

To synthesise these findings, our team developed a series of service artefacts that helped the organisation visualise the current state of the service. These included detailed user journey maps and a comprehensive service blueprint showing how user actions connected to internal processes and systems.

These artefacts became powerful tools for alignment. They enabled teams across the organisation to see the service through the eyes of their users and provided a shared foundation for identifying improvement opportunities.

By the end of discovery, the organisation had something it had previously lacked: a clear, evidence-driven understanding of where the service was falling short and why.

“Their approach to knowledge transfer was exceptional. Rather than producing documents and moving on, they made sure our team understood the reasoning behind every decision. Through collaborative workshops, paired working, and open research sessions, they helped build capability within the team so that user-centred design became part of our everyday practice.”

Service Owner

Design Approach

With discovery complete, our consultancy moved into the design phase of the project. The goal was not simply to redesign individual screens but to reshape the service around the needs and behaviours identified during research.

Our approach centred on iterative, evidence-led design. Rather than attempting to deliver a single, large transformation, we worked with the organisation to develop incremental improvements that could be tested and refined over time.

Service designers and business analysts worked closely together to translate research insights into tangible service improvements. One of the first priorities was simplifying the core user journeys identified during discovery.

In several cases, this involved removing unnecessary steps or consolidating fragmented processes into clearer flows. Content designers also played a crucial role in rewriting key parts of the service to ensure instructions were concise, understandable, and aligned with GOV.UK content design principles.

Throughout the design process, prototypes were regularly tested with users. These testing sessions allowed the team to observe how people interacted with proposed changes and identify areas where further refinement was needed.

This cycle of design, testing, and iteration ensured that the service evolved in response to real user behaviour rather than internal assumptions.

Collaboration was also central to the way the project was delivered. Our consultancy worked alongside internal digital teams, sharing methods and artefacts so that improvements could be sustained beyond the duration of the engagement.

Workshops and co-design sessions allowed operational staff to contribute their insights while ensuring that proposed changes remained practical within existing processes. This collaborative approach helped build organisational ownership of the redesigned service.

At a technical level, the team also worked to simplify the underlying service architecture where possible. In some areas, small architectural changes enabled more streamlined interactions between systems, reducing the need for manual intervention by operational teams.

By approaching design as a collaborative, iterative process, the organisation was able to gradually transform the service while maintaining operational stability.

Outcome and Impact

The redesign effort delivered measurable improvements for both users and the organisation.

One of the most significant outcomes was a substantial improvement in task completion rates across several core user journeys. Simplifying the application process and clarifying instructions helped reduce the number of users abandoning the service before completing their tasks.

Early monitoring of service analytics indicated a measurable increase in successful completions, with some journeys seeing improvements of more than 20 percent.

Accessibility improvements were another major outcome. The redesigned service incorporated clearer navigation structures, improved form design, and content that was easier to understand for users with varying levels of digital literacy. Testing with assistive technologies confirmed that the updated design better supported accessible interaction patterns.

Operational teams also experienced tangible benefits. By removing unnecessary complexity from the service and reducing the number of incomplete submissions, the organisation saw a noticeable decline in support enquiries related to the service.

This reduction allowed operational staff to focus more time on complex cases rather than routine queries about how to use the system.

The introduction of clearer service artefacts also helped the organisation improve internal collaboration. The service blueprint and ecosystem map developed during the project became reference tools that teams could use when planning future improvements.

Beyond individual metrics, the project helped embed a stronger culture of user-centred design within the organisation. Teams became more comfortable using user research as a foundation for decision-making, and iterative testing became an established part of the service development process.

For our consultancy, this was one of the most rewarding outcomes of the project: helping the organisation build the capability to continue improving the service long after the engagement had concluded.

“What stood out most was how quickly they became a trusted extension of the service team. They respected the operational realities we work within while still challenging us to think differently about the user experience. By the time the project concluded, our team felt confident continuing the research and design practices they had introduced.”

Senior Product Manager

Reflection

Looking back on the project, its success was not driven by a single design decision or technical improvement. Instead, it came from a disciplined commitment to understanding the service through the lens of its users.

User research provided the foundation for every major decision made throughout the project. By grounding design changes in real user behaviour, the organisation was able to move beyond assumptions and focus on what genuinely improved the service experience.

Equally important was the collaborative nature of the work. Public services operate within complex environments where policy, operations, and technology must all align. By working closely with teams across the organisation, the redesign effort balanced user needs with the practical realities of service delivery.

The project also demonstrated the value of visualising services as complete systems rather than isolated digital products. Artefacts such as service blueprints and ecosystem maps helped reveal connections between user interactions, internal processes, and technical infrastructure. This systemic view enabled the organisation to address root causes rather than surface symptoms.

Ultimately, the redesigned service now provides a clearer, more accessible experience for the people who rely on it. At the same time, the organisation has developed stronger practices for using research and design to guide future improvements.

For our consultancy, the project reinforced a principle that sits at the heart of digital government delivery: when services are shaped around real user needs, better outcomes follow for both citizens and the organisations that serve them.