News

Over the years, we’ve talked a lot about user-centred design. But should the user really be at the centre? In the real world, there isn’t a single end user.  Human beings are complex and live in an interconnected system. What happens when we become aware that services should not solely be designed to meet the […]

We all value content. We want to use images and videos we find on the internet in our presentations, blogs and websites.  However, reusing pictures and videos isn’t straightforward. Unless they state otherwise they will likely be copyrighted. Copyright asks us to not to reuse them and to recognise the time, skill and effort it […]

‘Trauma-informed design’ is a relatively new phrase within the voluntary sector. However, organisations have been applying its principles to physical settings for many years. This article is about applying those principles to online settings and digital services. It was written with help from Hera Hussain at Chayn. Chayn is a charity supporting survivors of gender-based […]

Like many charities, we’ve been adapting our face to face offerings for online. That includes Design Hops, our free half-day service design training. We’ve learnt a lot already from this process. In this article, we share our key insights and top tips for moving face to face training online. Use your existing knowledge and skills […]

Last week we wrote about how three civil society organisations worked with NoCode to improve their digital services. NoCode refers to a collection of apps which allow you to develop digital services without having to write code. Instead, you assemble it from building blocks. NoCode may lack some flexibility compared to writing code yourself, but […]

Over the last 10 years user stories have become an integral part of the research and design process I follow. They help organisations to be user-centered and meet their users’ objectives.  User stories are simple statements that focus on what the user wants to achieve. They define the audience/situation, motivation and expectation that a person […]

Editor’s intro: Last month we shared seven insights from GOV.UK’s former Design Director, Lou Downe. Today we are publishing in full their introduction to the Good Services Scale. This is relevant for charities because it’s the first attempt we’ve seen to create a scale based on what users need from a service, rather than what […]

In 2017, We Are With You had a problem to solve. Their users were struggling to find the advice and support they needed on their website. The site was full of content but hard to navigate. Stephanie Keenan, the charity’s digital lead, was committed to finding a solution by using a ‘test and learn’ approach. […]

In my last article, I gave you a simple process for ensuring your user stories are actionable, valuable and measurable using the INVEST framework. Using this framework is helpful because it saves you wasting time, budget and resources due to user stories that are unclear or too big. You will be able to easily tell […]

We recently kicked off a new project, working alongside Catalyst, to create the second version of a classification system for the charity sector.  Yep, that’s a big sentence. There’s a lot to unpack there. The project itself is fascinating, the scope is challenging, and the various stakeholders, previous work completed and partners make it a […]

…Imagine: all the smiles, all the chit chat, all the cups of tea and all the biscuits… all the relational wellbeing developed everyday by almost 200,000 UK charities. Well, the tap has been turned off.  Deepr, a Catalyst partner, are working out how to turn it back on, online. And they’ve some early ideas to […]

The open working toolkit is the brainchild of the ‘Open Working Lineup’ (or ‘OWLs’ for short), a collective of content and service designers that came together at the end of last year to help grantees of three Catalyst and The National Lottery Community Fund COVID-19 Digital Response programmes share their research, processes, design work and […]