WRITTEN ON December 3rd, 2009 BY William Heath AND STORED IN Design: Co-creation, Design: user-oriented, Save Time and Money

Consumer Focus is calling for a rethink of DirectGov which puts the consumer at the centre:

Directgov appears to have grown into the massive service it is today without a clear consumer-focused strategy. As described, the 2005 Cabinet Office report, Transformational Government: enabled by technology, set out a vision for transforming services through digital means, and addressing the challenges of joining up services, and making them personalised, efficient and effective.

The development of Directgov is closely tied to this strategy, but our conclusion is that more attention has been paid to joining up communication across services, and finding more cost effective ways of delivering services than to reaching a better understanding of consumers and developing provision around the needs of the individual. Consequently, the service is built around internal rationalisation processes, as opposed to clear, evidenced ideas about consumers’ interests and online expectations.

Right on. And how nice to have Consumer Focus join the crowdsourced “let’s make government IT better” wave, with this commentable version of their report.

Rather than have Consumer Focus tactfully pick up the pieces after five years abd £200m-odd, Wibbi (or rather, wouldn’t it Have been better if – Wihbbi) consumers had driven this whole process from before it started, and that DirectGov had been co-created from the beginning?