Abstract
Human-Centred Design (HCD) is increasingly proposed as a way to align government policies and services with citizens’ needs and capabilities. However, embedding HCD in everyday government practice remains challenging. This paper reports on a 2.5-year longitudinal action research study within the CGDC programme, where eight national agencies jointly redesigned debt-repayment services. The study combines observations, interviews and workshop data to analyse barriers and enablers for HCD practices in a politically and organisationally complex environment. Findings identify six recurring mechanisms: 1) Normalising user involvement, 2) Organising mandate for user needs, 3) Building multidisciplinary collaboration, 4) Creating facts on the ground, 5) Introducing recurring windows for user-centred policy change, and 6) Re-aligning the system around the citizen experience. These mechanisms show what stimulates and prevents the anchoring of HCD in government organisations, and how HCD in governments can move from innovation labs into the governmental “line”.
Keywords
human-centred design, government organisations, public service design, action research
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2026.1175
Citation
Klip, M., and van Kuijk, J. (2026) From lab to line: mechanisms for anchoring human-centred design in public policy and service development, in Simeone, L., Gray, C. M., Verhoeven, A., de Götzen, A., Bakırlıoğlu, Y., Zohar, H., Stead, M., and Buwert, P. (eds.), DRS2026: Edinburgh, 8–12 June, Edinburgh, United Kingdom. https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2026.1175
Creative Commons License
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Included in
From lab to line: mechanisms for anchoring human-centred design in public policy and service development
Human-Centred Design (HCD) is increasingly proposed as a way to align government policies and services with citizens’ needs and capabilities. However, embedding HCD in everyday government practice remains challenging. This paper reports on a 2.5-year longitudinal action research study within the CGDC programme, where eight national agencies jointly redesigned debt-repayment services. The study combines observations, interviews and workshop data to analyse barriers and enablers for HCD practices in a politically and organisationally complex environment. Findings identify six recurring mechanisms: 1) Normalising user involvement, 2) Organising mandate for user needs, 3) Building multidisciplinary collaboration, 4) Creating facts on the ground, 5) Introducing recurring windows for user-centred policy change, and 6) Re-aligning the system around the citizen experience. These mechanisms show what stimulates and prevents the anchoring of HCD in government organisations, and how HCD in governments can move from innovation labs into the governmental “line”.