What are Ireland’s Government Design Principles?
Studio Notes | Short Reads
In October 2022, spearheaded by the Department of Public Expenditure & Reform, the Irish government launched the 10 ‘Design Principles for Government in Ireland’ – a first step towards the broader application of people-centred design in our public service.
One year later, saw the publication of the “Action Plan for Designing Better Public Services” – a ‘roadmap for embedding design in the public service’. This plan intends to provide a practical guide for transformation, outlining clearly defined steps and actions to be taken nationally to develop the people-centred design approach across government.
Considering this momentum, we figured now would be a great time to take a closer look at some of our national design principles, and what they might look like when applied.
Just to recap, here are the 10 Design Principles for Government in Ireland:
- We will put people first
- We will design to be inclusive
- We will design services together
- We will design for trust
- We will design so knowledge can be reused and shared
- We will challenge assumptions and design with evidence
- We will design from the top down and the bottom up
- We will design to deliver value – in all its forms
- We will build, test, learn & iterate
- We will work to make things simpler
Over the coming weeks we’re going to take each principle one-by-one, offering our perspective on what each might mean, and sharing some real-world examples.
The principles were launched as “prototype”, and they’re by no means a perfect set. In other countries principles like these have been revised in response to evolving needs, and feedback.
One might immediately ask – “where’s the planet in all of this?”. We agree. There can be no people-centred design without planet-centred design. We intend to tackle questions like this, and hopefully boost some awareness and create some conversation about this step-change in the way Irish public services might be designed and delivered into the future.
If you’re keen to explore, check out some examples of design principles used by other governments, and public services around the world:
- Gov UK Design Principles
- OECD Good Practice Principles for Public Service Design and Delivery in the Digital Age
- US Web Design System Principles
- Ontario Government Design Principles
- The Scottish Approach to Service Design (SAtSD)
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