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Design

The design manual will be changing in the next few months as we move to a consolidated DDT manual for delivering good services. Tell us what's missing in the design manual and help shape the future guidance, standards and design profession in DfE.

Roadmap for design

How the DfE Design profession roadmap aligns with the department’s strategic objectives, ensuring that design contributes directly to delivering high-quality digital services, improving data use, fostering innovation, and building capability.

Purpose

The DfE Design Roadmap sets out the strategic direction for design, ensuring that digital services are consistent, accessible, and user-centred.

It provides a clear framework for embedding design excellence across DfE, ensuring that services meet high standards, reduce friction for users, and are built efficiently using shared principles, patterns, and evidence-based decision-making.

Design consistency and standards

Design consistency ensures that services across DfE follow a unified set of design principles and patterns, enabling a joined-up experience for users.

Develop design consistency

  • Develop shared libraries of patterns, components, and templates for quicker and consistent design iterations
  • Support teams in aligning products with the Digital Product Branding standard
  • Ensuring we have robust design assurance to maintain consistency
  • Contribute more to the GOV.UK Design System and GOV.UK Service Manual

Establish regular review and design crit sessions

  • Implement structured design critique sessions to share work and good practices
  • Foster a culture of constructive feedback and iteration, ensuring high design quality across teams

Accessibility

Accessibility is a legal requirement and a core design principle that ensures DfE digital services are usable by all users, including those with disabilities.

Ensure accessibility compliance

  • Ensure digital products meet accessibility standards
  • Embed accessibility as a core requirement in all service delivery
  • Continue to develop accessibility guidelines, good practice and training resources
  • Develop a programme of continuous improvement for accessibility

Embed accessibility into DfE's culture

  • Ensure accessibility is part of all design and development discussions
  • Encourage co-design with users of assistive technologies to build services that work for all
  • Make accessibility a leadership priority, embedding it in digital strategy and governance frameworks

Service mapping and user experience

Service mapping helps DfE visualise and understand the full journey of users across digital and non-digital services, improving decision-making and service design.

Create a centralised service mapping repository

  • Establish a structured service map repository covering all DfE digital services
  • Ensure service maps are accessible for planning, development, and improvement
  • Use service maps to identify opportunities for service consolidation and improvement

Improve visibility of user journeys

  • Map cross-service user journeys to highlight friction points and inefficiencies
  • Integrate service mapping insights into digital transformation planning

Enable collaboration across teams

  • Break down silos by ensuring cross-functional teams contribute to service mapping
  • Share mapping insights to drive joined-up service delivery
  • Create a service-led design culture that prioritises outcomes over outputs

Metrics and performance measures

Developing shared performance measures helps DfE track and improve digital service quality, ensuring they meet user needs.

Define shared performance metrics

  • Establish common metrics to measure usability, accessibility, and service effectiveness
  • Align performance tracking with DfE and GOV.UK service standards
  • Ensure all digital services have measurable success criteria

Standardise user satisfaction and experience measures

  • Develop a consistent approach to user satisfaction and experience measures
  • Ensure all services have a user feedback mechanism
  • Use feedback to drive service improvements

Standardise reporting and transparency

  • With product to create a shared performance dashboard
  • Ensure everyone has access to service design insights

Design assessor capability

Developing the talent in design assessors to be able to effectively assess products and services against standards and growing complexity.

Strengthen design assessor training and expertise

  • Provide structured training for design assessors to develop skills and knowledge
  • Ensure assessors are knowledgeable across DfE and GOV.UK service standards and design principles
  • Ensure assessment findings lead to actionable improvements
  • Use survey responses to identify areas for improvement

Track and evaluate the impact of design assessments

  • Measure how design assessments improve service quality and compliance with standards
  • Monitor assessment outcomes to identify recurring issues across services
  • Use insights from assessments to refine and evolve design standards

Training, skills, and capability

Continuing to develop the design skills capability framework in DfE and ensuring all designers can use the framework for personal development and have access to training.

Develop structured training and career progression pathways

  • Create a clear learning pathway for designers at all levels, from early talent to senior roles
  • Provide training on design principles, accessibility, prototyping, and user research
  • Align training with DfE and GOV.UK standards to ensure consistency across services
  • Establish a mentorship programme to connect junior and senior designers

Embed the design skills capability framework

  • Use the design skills capability framework to assess and support designers at all levels
  • Ensure all designers have role-specific objectives that align with the capability framework
  • Use data from the capability assessments to identify skill gaps and prioritise training

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