Working to make government more user-centred
The International Design in Government community is a group of design-minded people from governments all over the world. The purpose is to learn from each other, share best practice and design patterns, and discuss shared challenges so that we can try and work on them together.
The community has a Slack group, monthly calls and events in various cities. You can read about the activities on the Design in Government blog.
If you work in government and youโd like to join the community and the monthly calls, you can apply to join the Slack group.
The community is open to designers, user researchers, content designers, accessibility experts and other design-minded people. In order to join you must be working embedded in government at any level: national, state or city โ this includes consultancies that contract solely for government.
Email the community management team if you have any questions.
9 to 11 April, 2025
Celebrating 10 years of the Dutch governmentโs User Needs First community, itโs inviting international colleagues to Amsterdam for a 3-day conference.
1 to 2 October, 2024
Adjacent to the Service Design Global Conference in Helsinki, the Finnish Government design community Julkis-muotoilijat partnered for an International Design in Government community event.
29 November, 2023
A 24-hour remote conference to bring together colleagues from all parts of the globe โ not just the Global North, and co-create the most complete overview of the state of government innovation.
4 October, 2023
A small in-person community gathering adjacent to the Service Design Network Global Conference in Berlin with short inputs, discussions and topical breakouts.
15 June, 2023
An open conversation on the long slog of public service transformation with members of the International Design in Government community as part of the Creative Bureaucracy Festival.
18, 19, 20 November, 2019
International Design in Government Autumn Conference in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, hosted by the Dutch Users First (Gebruiker Centraal) Community.
25 to 26 June, 2019
International Design in Government Summer Conference in Edinburgh, Scotland, hosted by the Scottish Government.
29 May, 2019
International Design in Government Day at Code for America Summit 2019 in San Francisco, USA.
17 to 18 July, 2018
The first International Design in Government Conference in London, hosted by the Government Digital Service.
In 2017, the Government Digital Service established the international design in government community. A community of international designers working in, for and with governments across the world.
The international design in government community has grown to over 3,500 members from over 70 countries. The community developed online via a mailing list, Slack and monthly calls.
In summer 2018, 220 community members from 26 countries came together in London to exchange ideas, create connections, and find opportunities for collaboration at the first International Design in Government Conference.
In 2019, community members organised and contributed to 4 global events โ in Oakland (USA), Edinburgh (Scotland), Berlin (Germany), and Rotterdam (Netherlands). Read more about the 2019 events.
During the first 2 years of the pandemic, we ran community calls on COVID-19 responses, and community members from Argentina, Norway and the Netherlands ran webinars on innovation culture and ethics in design.
In February 2022, the international design in government community turned 5. You can read about the future of the community in this anniversary blog post.
In August 2023, we gave an update on how the community is coming together again through calls, meetups and a remote conference in November 2023.