Vision
Enabling design teams in the Department for Education to create good services through a framework of standards, tools and processes.
Objectives
Our objectives set out the work we do, how we'll do it, and measure success.
Objective 1Design and implement an improved service assurance framework
We will work with assurance and service assessment colleagues to:
- implement a new discovery peer review processes
- improve the department's service assessment process for alpha, beta, and live service assessments
- carry out a discovery for designing an ongoing service assessment process
- design a new ongoing training process for becoming an assessor or lead assessor
- improve the reporting process and outcomes and make use of data for service assessments
Designers to have access to, use, and iterate, common patterns, tools, and components
We will:
- ensure all new design colleagues joining DfE get the right kit and access to tools they need from day 1
- ensure everyone including contractors, who join DfE, get time with the Head of Profession to understand design standards and principles
- work with designers to identify, document, and publish common components and patterns
- reset the design communities of practice to support growing the maturity of design in DfE
- design career pathways and skills development for people looking to join or change design professions
Enable anyone working in, or with, design professions, to understand the value of good design
We will:
- make it easier for designers to talk about our work, in the open
- encourage and support teams to hold more show and tells and invite people from outside their teams
- develop and publish key design metrics which design can be consistely measured against
- support designers in defining what good looks like for design
- grow the understanding and value of design outsdide traditional design and digital teams
Ensure that all the services we provide to end users meet accessibility requirements
We will:
- recruit a senior accessibility specialist into the Design Ops team to support and implement accessibility, usability, and inclusive design initiatives
- publish and assure a DfE Accessibility Standard
- design and implement an accessibility training process for all new starters along with profession-specific training
- develop an ongoing service assurance process for the monitoring and compliance with accessibility regulations and standards
Support departmental objectives and missions
We will:
- collaborate with operational and delivery teams to implement department objectives
- support policy teams with user-centred principles and processes
- deliver solutions which support maturing design professions in DfE and improving services for our users