Blog

For months, I’ve been working behind the scenes to stand up the Canadian Digital Service. Through this process, I’ve done a lot of thinking about why Canada needs a digital service organization and the potential it has to change how we design government services.

The UK’s Government Digital Service has a brilliant list of ten design principles. I still remember the first time I saw it. “Start with user needs”, it read, “not government needs.” Oh my goodness, I thought: this is a real UK government website! That’s …amazing!

Putting users first. That’s what CDS is all about. When we talk about “digital government,” it often conjures up websites, APIs, and apps. They’re part of the toolkit. But digital government is about people: their needs, their experiences, their frustrations, even their hopes.

Canadians deserve government services that are easy to access and to use. They expect their government to be focused on service to citizens. In the connected world of the 21st century, good service means digital delivery, whether you are ordering take-out, rearranging your mortgage, managing your prescriptions – or accessing government programs and services.