Designing User Experience in the Public Sector — UX Talk #37
Digital Transformation in the Public Sector is reshaping how citizens interact with government services, going beyond technology to foster innovation and inclusivity. Bringing together insights from Oblo (a design studio), Prodigys Group (a software company), INSIEL (a data center), and the Public Administration of the Municipalities of Trieste and Palmanova, this article delves into the challenges of conducting user research and designing interfaces for digital services. Discover how these organizations create accessible and empowering experiences for a diverse community, ensuring that digital advancements benefit everyone.
Digital Transformation and Co-Design: The Experience of the Municipality of Trieste Between Innovation and Citizen Participation — Gianna Ceschin, Head of Digital Transformation Services at the Municipality of Trieste
Digital transformation in public services is a socio-technical process, meaning it doesn’t involve only technology but also the interaction between social and technological systems.
“Digital Transformation isn’t just a topic for IT professionals; it’s a multidisciplinary effort that requires collaboration among diverse teams.”
This is because public administration has many regulations that must be respected in the digital realm, even though these regulations weren’t originally designed with digitalization in mind. Therefore, Digital Transformation is a socio-technical process because technological systems have social consequences, and social systems have technological consequences, something we’ve experienced strongly in recent years.
As UX (User Experience) professionals, we don’t design technologies in isolation; we design social systems, which means we need to understand how people and systems interact.
The Municipality of Trieste has been a leader in this area since the 1990s with the creation of the civic network. Today, with the Agenda 2030 and the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR) funds, the focus is on accessibility and user experience. One of the main challenges is to simplify access to digital services for a diverse audience, ensuring that the interfaces are intuitive and consistent across various portals. Recently, Trieste completed the implementation of Project 141 of the PNRR, standardizing user interfaces at a national level to make it easier for citizens to navigate the services. However, the success of this transformation requires not only a focus on technology but also on effective UX methodologies, which include active citizen participation through co-design tools and continuous feedback.
A significant example of this approach was the intervention on Barcola’s waterfront, a location beloved by Trieste residents, which was damaged by a storm. The municipality activated surveys and research to gather citizens’ opinions on how it should be rebuilt. In this process, Artificial Intelligence was used to analyze open-ended responses, facilitating a better understanding of community needs. The same approach, using surveys and customer satisfaction tools, will be employed to improve digital services, making the questionnaires available through QR codes at physical service counters to identify key issues and intervene effectively.
Initial evaluations of the digital services indicate success, but some aspects, such as content that wasn’t rewritten, have caused dissatisfaction. The current goal is to understand which analog services citizens would like to see digitized through direct research. An important step will be to educate citizens on using digital services and to ensure accessibility for everyone, thanks in part to the role of the usability manager, who supervises the website’s compliance with accessibility guidelines and assists employees with disabilities.
Digitalization is a process that goes beyond IT and integrates social and cognitive models into online services, with a continuous focus on public value, citizen participation, and accessibility for all. The experience with Barcola’s waterfront is a concrete example of how technologies can be integrated with direct citizen feedback to create more effective and appreciated solutions.
Designing User Experience in the Public Sector
Diego Antonini di Insel & Diego Sardon di Prodigys
“Citizens shouldn’t have to look for offices; they should look for services.” Massimiliano Cao
Designing user experiences in the public sector is a complex and interdisciplinary challenge, as demonstrated by the work Prodigys has carried out in collaboration with the Municipality of Trieste and Insiel. Thanks to a joint effort, they got ahead of the curve, starting in 2020 when a legislative decree made the digitalization of administrative processes mandatory. This allowed to launch a pilot project across a dozen municipalities in Friuli-Venezia Giulia, developing a prototype version of a digital platform aimed at citizens.
One of their major successes has been the introduction of the Carta Famiglia (Family Card), a digital platform that managed over 81,307 applications and involved 267,324 citizens across the region. This tool has simplified access to essential services, enabling families to save time and reduce bureaucracy, gradually eliminating the need for paper documentation.
Another important development was the introduction of Dote Famiglia, a subsidy that promotes access to educational, cultural, and recreational services for families with minor children. Through the digital platform, families can submit applications online and track the status of their requests in real time, providing a seamless and accessible experience. To date, 40,832 families have benefited from this service.
The Carta Famiglia FVG app, launched in 2022, represented a further step towards simplifying access to public services. With over 10,000 downloads, the app allows citizens to manage both the Carta Famiglia and Dote Famiglia directly from their mobile devices, using digital credentials such as SPID or CIE. This has significantly improved process efficiency, reducing waiting times and making it easier for families to access benefits and services.
Despite these successes, challenges remain, especially regarding the complexity of certain services like obtaining SPID, which can be a daunting process for those less familiar with technology, particularly the elderly. This highlights how digital transformation must go beyond simply creating intuitive platforms — it also requires deep consideration of social dynamics and the barriers that prevent equitable access for all.
In countries like the Netherlands, studies have shown that the adoption of high-quality digital services can increase citizens’ trust in government. Therefore, it is crucial that Italy also works not just to simplify access, but to encourage citizens to use these tools by making them easy, innovative, and accessible.
Digitalization in the public sector is a systemic complexity that requires careful integration of regulations, technology, and human needs. Our work with the municipalities of Friuli-Venezia Giulia shows that, with the right vision, it is possible to radically transform the citizen experience, making public services more efficient and closely aligned with everyday needs.
Designing User Experiences for Public Services: Challenges and Lessons Learned Alessandra Del Nero Experience Designer @ Oblo
In the context of public Service Design, the complexity is exponentially higher compared to other sectors. When designing for the public, you’re not focusing on a single individual, but on a diverse community with a wide range of needs. Projects like the App IO for the digital transformation of the Italian government, Yes Milano for the City of Milan, and the first Italian digital library network MLOL offer valuable lessons on how to design in an inclusive and efficient way.
- Inclusivity by Design: A key principle in public service design is universality: services must be accessible to everyone. A useful example is the design of school desks, which are often made for right-handed students, implicitly excluding left-handed ones. This scenario highlights the importance of considering so-called “edge cases,” which should not be marginalized but treated as stress cases can help test the design and improve the overall experience for everyone.
- Language Accessibility : Accessibility is not just about the graphical interface, but also about the clarity of language. In the App IO project, one of the critical points was deciding who to include in usability testing: the team started with users who had never used digital services and who did not speak Italian. This kind of approach provides valuable feedback for designing services that can truly serve a broad range of citizens. The project requires a vision that goes beyond interface design. It’s not just about choosing colors or shapes, but ensuring that everyone can access the services, regardless of their digital or linguistic skills.
- Designing with Content at the Core (Content First): Another crucial element is starting with content, rather than relying on placeholders like lorem ipsum. Accessibility isn’t just a graphical aspect but involves the cognitive level as well, especially when dealing with complex public services. In this sense, the European Accessibility Act has made it mandatory to adopt accessibility standards, but the real challenge is translating these rules into designs that treat content as an essential part of the experience.
- Project Sustainability: A common mistake in design is to focus solely on the end user. In reality, when designing public services, it’s essential to also consider those who manage and maintain these systems. In the case of the MLOL project, for example, a modular platform was designed to facilitate the curation of digital libraries, simplifying the collection’s management and update. This approach reduced the workload for service managers, making the system more efficient and scalable.
Lessons learned
Inclusivity by Design
- Design for inclusion by starting with the people involved in the research or validation phases.
- Consider different levels of digitalization, availability to participate, and knowledge of the service’s language.
- Not all cases will ever be included; an inclusive project is in constant improvement.
Accessibility
- Gaining maturity as a UX designer means starting to design from the content.
- Public services communicate complex topics that need to be made linguistically accessible.
- Accessible experiences may require different interaction models.
Project Sustainability
- Provide templates and starter resources to facilitate management.
- Reduce the effort for those managing content updates.
- Constraints are the project’s allies :)
These lectures were held during the 37th UX Talk organized by POLI.design’s Experience Design Academy. Follow us on LinkedIn and Instagram to be updated about the upcoming UX Talks, which are always open to the public.
Curated by Alice Paracolli
