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UX thinking can transform government services by shifting the focus to the citizen journey, building internal UX maturity, and creating the flexibility to iterate over time. Most government agencies do very little of this today, and it shows.
What Does UX Have to Do With Government Services?
A lot. Citizens need government to help them with specific, predictable, repeatable tasks. So why does interacting with it so often feel like talking to a brick wall?
There are a growing number of UX professionals working at all levels to make government services better. But the obstacles they face are deep and familiar: resistance to change, poor UX maturity, and a lack of investment. These aren't unique to government. They show up in organisations of all kinds.
The difference is that government agencies have a monopoly on the services they provide. There is no competitor waiting to replace them if they fall behind. That removes a lot of the urgency to improve.
The IRS is a useful case study. It handles one of the most universal and high-stakes citizen interactions there is: taxes. And it has struggled to keep up. A recent op-ed in The Washington Post made a strong case for why the IRS needs $80 billion. It's no coincidence that TurboTax, one of the most successful digital products ever built, exists specifically to make that experience easier.
There is plenty of room for improvement. Here are three fundamental ways UX thinking can help.
How Can a Cohesive Omnichannel Experience Improve Government Services?
Even if you file your taxes electronically like most Americans, you can still end up in paper purgatory. Any issue with your e-filed return and the IRS sends you a letter. You must reply by snail mail or fax. That's the problem with multichannel without omnichannel.
Nielsen Norman Group defines omnichannel (or cross-channel) user experience as the macro level of UX. When executed well, it optimises the end-to-end experience, helping users complete essential tasks as they move from one stage to the next and bounce across channels and devices.
TurboTax can help you prepare and file. It has no control over what the IRS does with that information. In an ideal world, you'd see your refund in minutes. Issues and errors would be flagged in real time. You could respond to audits or IRS messages through whatever communication channel suits you.
Government agencies are notorious for taking a one-size-fits-all approach. They don't always have the structure to handle information across different channels. They move slowly and methodically, often for good reasons around safety and privacy.
But expectations have shifted. People are used to switching between devices mid-task. They expect services to meet them where they are and allow two-way communication to troubleshoot problems and give feedback. Fewer and fewer people are willing to jump through hoops set up by a bureaucracy.
To be fair, government isn't alone here. Have you ever tried to contact customer support for a major corporation? Most of the time it feels like you've slipped into a black hole. You dig through a website to find the elusive phone number only to be handed off or told to send an email.
The IRS has made a start. The "Where's My Refund?" tool provides refund information online and through a mobile app. The online account management tool has improved over the years. But as NN Group points out, "multichannel is not omnichannel."
Crafting true omnichannel experiences can be difficult, time-consuming, and expensive. But the efficiency it creates for everyone involved more than compensates for the cost. Imagine a tax filing experience that tells you exactly where you are and how to get to the next step, from beginning to end.
Government agencies need to think about the full citizen journey when designing services and keep iterating to support it.
Why Does UX Maturity Matter for Government Agencies?
Successful user experience starts from the inside. When internal processes are frustrating and inefficient, everybody suffers. Overworked employees struggle through an arcane day-to-day work life. Frustrated citizens wait longer for refunds. The government misses out on revenue from a backlog of 10.2 million unprocessed tax returns.
Investment doesn't always mean money or technology (though that certainly helps). The most important investment is in a user-centric mindset. The most efficient path from Point A to Point B is the one that meets the needs of users. It's also one that builds internal processes in service of that end goal.
As The Washington Post noted, Congress has systemically underinvested in the IRS. Its funding was cut for most of the past decade despite the agency taking on ever more responsibilities. That's the structural reality UX professionals are working against.
Ironically, the federal government has been on the cutting edge of UX leadership at a high level for years. Sites like Digital.gov and Usability.gov have become trusted resources for UX professionals inside and outside government. PlainLanguage.gov encourages clear language in government communications, in alignment with the Plain Writing Act passed in 2010.
But good UX doesn't happen without commitment at the agency and team level.
Even without the best technology, agencies can invest effort in making sure citizens find real value in what they provide. That leads to cost-effective solutions and processes, whether built in-house or with partners.
Programmes like the United States Digital Service and state-level equivalents like the Colorado Digital Service have laid much of this groundwork. The volunteer-run U.S. Digital Response emerged from the needs of local agencies struggling to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic. These are great examples of UX and digital professionals raising the bar for government services.
Nothing replaces a commitment to a user-centric mindset at the leadership level. It's the prerequisite for building a good user experience into any service. Everybody has to start where they are and iterate from there.
How Should Government Agencies Stay Flexible Enough to Iterate and Innovate?
As The Washington Post reported: "Technology to scan text into a computer has been commercially available since the 1970s and has greatly improved in the past decade. Yet at the IRS, data from paper returns is still entered manually."
That's what happens when you stop iterating.
The biggest risk of not investing in UX is falling too far behind the times. In a competitive free-market environment, organisations evolve or die. Government agencies don't face that same existential pressure. They have a monopoly. That can make it harder to justify investing in innovation and iterating on solutions.
But an ineffective service is still an ineffective service, even if there's no competitor to replace it.
It's impossible to create an effective user experience in one shot. It takes responsiveness and a willingness to adapt to the changing needs of your users. If you don't evolve, you end up like the IRS: using an outdated programming language to manually process paper returns.
Government agencies don't have the best reputation for being innovative and agile. Changes need to happen at the policy, regulatory, and procurement levels, not just in the digital arena, to help them become more adaptable.
Nothing revealed the need for more agility in government like the Covid-19 pandemic. The good news is that governments around the world showed they could react and respond to changing times. The harder news is that there is still plenty of room for improvement. Agencies need to take the lessons learned from Covid and build them into their permanent procedures and policies.
Great Government Services Aren't Created in a Vacuum
Sometimes the first step is admitting you need help. We've worked with countless organisations in the private and public spaces to identify what they're missing and help fill the gaps. Whether we serve as thought partners, help identify gaps and build future state journey maps and service blueprints, or collaborate on actual designs, we have the practical tools and knowledge to help you find the quickest way to improve your product or service within the confines of government regulations.
Get in touch with us and let's talk about how Drawbackwards can help you take full advantage of the resources at your disposal to make your government service work better for all your citizens.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is UX thinking and why does it matter for government services?
UX thinking means designing services around the actual needs of the people using them, not around internal processes or organisational convenience. For government, this matters because citizens need to complete essential, predictable tasks, and every obstacle in the way costs time, money, and trust.
What is an omnichannel user experience in the context of government?
Omnichannel UX means a citizen can move across different channels, such as web, mobile, phone, and mail, without losing context or having to start over. For government agencies, this is often missing. A citizen might file taxes online but then be forced to reply to follow-up notices by fax, which is a classic example of multichannel without omnichannel.
How does poor UX maturity affect government agencies?
Low UX maturity means there is no shared commitment to designing services around user needs. The result is fragmented processes, overworked staff, long wait times, and frustrated citizens. At the IRS, this contributed to a backlog of over 10 million unprocessed tax returns.
What government organisations are already doing good UX work?
Several programmes have made meaningful progress. The United States Digital Service and state-level equivalents like the Colorado Digital Service have built real UX capacity inside government. The volunteer-run U.S. Digital Response stepped in during Covid-19 to help local agencies adapt quickly. Federal resources like Digital.gov and PlainLanguage.gov also set a strong example.
How can a government agency start improving its UX without a big budget?
Start with a user-centric mindset at the leadership level. That costs nothing but commitment. From there, focus on understanding the full citizen journey, identifying the biggest friction points, and iterating on solutions over time. Working with experienced UX partners can help agencies find the quickest path to improvement within the constraints they already operate under.
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