GOV.UK
Designing data
Bringing data into the design studio; and design into data projects: by Cat Drew, Dr Lucy Kimbell & Stephen Bennett A couple of weeks ago, we took part in a ‘data studio’: an experimental workshop hosted at an arts university …
Skills, tools and techniques
There are a multitude of skills, tools and techniques you can use to implement open and better policy making. We're always looking for new and innovative ways to design better policy - here's where you can find out all the latest on tools to help you deliver better, more open policy.
Tools for discovering data
I’m off to speak at Open Data Manchester this evening about both how open data and open working can make better policy. I thought I’d share some of the tools we in Policy Lab use to help us think through …
Exploring the evidence
I find it really hard to read a long report unless I’ve got a particular question to answer. So when Uscreates got people to go on an ‘evidence safari’ to explore evidence I thought “we should do more of that”!
Designing a toolkit for policy makers
The design journey of the Open Policy Making toolkit. Bringing digital and policy together.
Cards toolkit to help generate ideas and develop your policy project in an agile way
Since its birth in the mid-90s, agile methodology has become the star of the software development and project management world. Findcourses.co.uk lists 43 different agile courses available, 3M post-it notes sales are around £1 billion per year and ‘scrums’, ‘burn-downs’ …
What do civil servants need to learn about user-centred design?
User-centred design is increasingly on the agenda of government and Civil Service Learning is gearing up to deliver learning on user-centred design next year. Read about how they're using the Policy Lab to help design the course.
Ethnography in policymaking: Barriers and opportunities
Increasingly on the agenda of policymakers is a need to understand the needs, capacities and perspectives of citizens, service users, beneficiaries and front line staff so that policies are fit for purpose and deliverable and public services are better designed.
Launching the Open Policy Making Toolkit
As you may know from some of our previous blog posts, we’ve been busy squirrelling away to create an Open Policy Making Toolkit. The aim is very simple – as the movement supporting Open Policy Making has grown, more and more …
Open Policy 2015: Prototyping in government workshop
A room full of people making Play-Doh shapes of ducks and monkeys might not seem an obvious way to start a conversation about prototyping in government. But opening the Open Policy 2015 prototyping workshop this way allowed the speaker, Andrea …
Open Policy 2015: BIS digital communications
I was delighted to be asked to participate in Open Policy 2015 and talk about the work we do in BIS to encourage teams to build digital capability, and specifically how three teams have worked with online communities to extend their …