EUPA/HCI2002: The Public Sector's UCD Challenge

ISO 13407, the standard on user-centred design, concerns itself with the 'capability of a system to enable specified users to achieve specified goals with effectiveness, productivity, safety and satisfaction'.

There are particular issues that affect its implementation in public services, said Brian Sherwood Jones of Process Contracting, an HF, usability and system engineering consultancy that has undertaken a lot of work in the public sector. Using the ISO TR 18529 framework "Human-centred design processes for interactive systems" as a base, he reviewed the major constraints and drivers that government systems place on UCD and also how UCD can improve system acquisition.

His analysis of guidelines included considerable detail, matching sections of the framework with the current realities. For instance, in his assessment of how to 'plan and manage the HCD process', he reports:

'"There are two main risks which departments have to manage if the benefits of e-government are to be achieved:

'Citizen take up – The risk that groups in society are excluded from the benefits for example those without access to a computer and the public see no advantage in accessing services electronically and take up is low.

'Supply side barriers – The risk that departments do not provide the services citizens want to access electronically or fail to take advantage of new technology to improve services and efficiency or that IT suppliers do not deliver the intended services to cost, time and quality requirements." (National Audit Office)

'Quality of planning and management very variable.

'Organisational fragmentation can make this more difficult.

'Multiple stakeholders makes planning and management more difficult.

'Deadlines can become political and undermine user involvement and feedback.'

There is much more in this vein and it raises a multitude of key issues around implementation. See the full text below.

(Processes for UCD are set out in ISO TR 18529, the process model derived from the standard ISO 13407)

Associated Link: Full text of Sherwood Jones' presentation on "Why Public Sector Systems are Different"

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