41. Changeable

I'm not sure if this has been a good month or not. One the one hand, getting to see the Northern Lights for the first time ever—and from my backyard no less!—was pretty cool. However (along with terrible world world events) I also did get knocked out for much of the month with my second covid infection. It was a little better than my first covid infection December 2022 but not by much, I was bed ridden for much of the early May Bank Holiday weekend. Still, I'm finally back and smiling, hoping that June will be more settled.

This month in digital government and design

• I did a workshop at Design System Day part 1 on doing more with the GOV.UK Prototype Kit. I'll write it up eventually (and a video is coming) but in the interim here is are my slides (with videos in them), the example prototype (password: example) with github repo, and padlet activity. One of those 'the show must go on' things as much of my preparation time got cut short by getting covid and I was still recovering when I did it.
• The Government Digital Service has released identity assurance principles for building identity services in government
• Tim Paul has written up Using AI to generate web forms from PDFs. And Alistair Lang did a personal experiment to rebrand GOV.UK Forms
• TPX Impact on about how embedding research practices as a consultancy also means giving the team the power to do it when the constulancy walks away. Also on tipping power relationships: Clara Greo on how designers need to be mindful of narratives and the voices that are erased. (Emma Northcote also wrote up reflections on attending Clara’s power and privilege course). And a design tool for reflection: Frederick van Amstel’s crisis deck.
• I like the honesty of Oli Oldfield’s I became a policy person on a digital service including the role of luck and the danger of shying away from difficult conversations. Speaking of policy, Lighthouse Policy Design have a set of scenarios as to why policy can be wary of user-centred design (or more correctly, badly executed user-centred design)
• Monzo are doing some interesting experiments and releases, from a basic banking experience if there is a system shutdown to letting people deposit cash at the Post Office. Also in 'unglamorous but important': The Cyber Security and Digital in Nova Scotia are piloting a new approach to addressing legacy technology
• B2B org Welcome to the Jungle realised that their product architecture didn’t match their brand architecture and wrote about what they did to adjust their information architecture to bridge the gap. Related: Christina Wodtke’s diagrams for thinking (ohh so those bubble like diagrams are actually called ‘bubble diagrams’ and a tool for deliberately vague relationships, I actually have an immediate use for that!), and STBY on design research roles enabling agile collaboration
• Erika Hall explains that design is actually more logical than business and so designers need to think about both business value and the stories and power related to it. Related:  Ben Sprung and Nicole Aleong of DHLUC on applying user ecosystem thinking in Funding Service Design, Peter Bihr on Buxton index (what timeframe your organisation uses for planning), Petra Wille on what to do if your transformation project isn’t doing as well as planned, Hazel Weakly on how IT migrations involve different 3 different types of ‘done’, and the New York Times on how historical decisions mean that New Yorkers still have trash bags on the street.
• Jennifer Pahlka talks about how public input is not user research and also how sometimes followup user research refutes earlier user research.
• Daniele Catalanotto suggests that service design should go beyond the product triad of desirable, feasible and viable to also be transparent, systemic and responsible
• Data by Design looks great.
• Accessibility references: Parampreet Singh writes up a developer’s guide to accessibility (start with structured HTML!), Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative, Main navigation share how to do collaborative research with lived experience experts (including talking compensation), Rachel DiTullio talks doing accessibility testing on mobile apps, Cintia Romero of Pinterest talks baking in accessibility into Pinterest’s design system, and Whitney Lewis of Poke Tech writes on how content writers can think about accessibility (I liked the explanation of alt text, though as Caroline Jarrett pointed out, maybe ignore comments about Flesh-Kinnaid).
• Tips on life: “Read a lot of history so you can understand how weird the past was; that way you’ll be comfortable with how weird the future will be”. Actual examples of history: Hugh Dubberly on working on the groundbreaking Apple Knowledge Navigator video, the Register on the history of the standard user interface, Matthew Allen on the history of flowcharting, and Lou Downe and Sarah Drummond on the history of patterns.

Miscellany

• Matt Jukes has released Bloggers about Blogging
• 11 rules of alchemy for ideas from ad man Rory Sutherland
• I did not know that George Miller of Max Max fame was a practicing doctor for years (including while directing Mad Max as it helped that he could be an on-set medic)
• The Newcastle Poetry festival happened this month. I got to see the wonderful, witty 92-year old Kiwi poet Fleur Adcock perform (I came across her work from 'Immigrant' in a Poem for Every Day of the Year)
• This is a fascinating discussion of North Korea and perception vs reality. (The Newcastle Poetry Festival also included formerly-from-North-Korea Suji Kwock Kim)
• Is it just me or does Canada do comedy extremely well? I love this skit from the Baronesses about convertible bridesmaid dresses
• Who isn't playing the NY Times games, getting angry at Connections categories?
• Finally, in perhaps an act of hypocrisy on my part: Pete Davis on not just living in a non-commital world of liquid modernity and dedicating onself to making, meeting, seeing things through.

Until next time,

Vicky