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Design

Make decisions based on evidence

To design great services, you need to collect reliable data and make decisions based on what you find.

Design with data

Teams designing digital services for Defence are expected to know about their users.

Collecting and understanding user data helps you:

  • avoid assumptions and bias
  • make objective design decisions
  • create designs based on what your users need
  • show why decisions have been made

Check your assumptions

Before designing a service, you need to review and challenge your assumptions.

For example, a common assumption in Defence is that all users have access to MODNET.

After you have designed your service, maybe data shows that not all users have access to MODNET. You have to spend more time and money redesigning your service.

Data in different phases

In discovery, sometimes data shows that a new digital service is not needed. Making an evidence-based decision not to continue helps Defence spend taxpayers’ money wisely.

In alpha and beta, data is essential to designing services that users can and will use.

When your service is live, data helps you track success and improve things for users.

Case study

The Home Office and Border Force relied heavily on data to design a service that helps keep the UK border secure. They continue to use data to improve it.

Find out moreabout how the Home Office uses data to design services

Reuse and share data

Everyone working in Defence has a responsibility to reuse data that we already have.

Before starting a discovery or making a research plan, you need to check if the data you need already exists. We’re working on ways to make this easier.

For now, you can:

Use existing services and tools

Any team in Defence can use the Data Analytics Service (DAS). The service offers tools that are approved and ready to use.

DAS tools help you:

  • analyse your data faster
  • store your data securely
  • make the most of data from across Defence

Find out more about the Data Analytics Service (DAS) (opens in a new tab).

Get the right people on your team

To collect reliable data and help you interpret it correctly, you need people with the right skills and experience.

In other UK government departments, teams include Digital Data and Technology (DDaT) roles.

Roles that help you make decisions based on evidence include:

If you do not yet have a user researcher, ask the UCD community for advice.

Designing with data: an introduction (opens in a new tab)
Government Design Principles: Design with data (opens in a new tab)

Published September 2023

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