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Your responsibilities
To successfully meet this criterion, agencies need to:
- know where your users go to access government services online
- evaluate if existing access points are fit for reuse for your service.
When to apply
Apply Criterion 1 during the Discovery phase to gain a deep understanding about your digital service users and any benefits gained from leveraging off an existing access point.
Questions for consideration
- Who are the target users of the new service?
- How are the intended users of the new service currently accessing government services online?
- Is there an existing access point already familiar to the users?
- Have you explored ways to overcome current blockers for your users when they are accessing digital services?
How to apply criterion 1
Conduct user research
Conduct user research to understand how your target users access government services online.
Use methods and tools such as:
- interviews, surveys, observation or analytics to gather data on your users' needs, goals, expectations, and behaviours
- existing research from other agencies or sources that are relevant to your service
- past research reports, journey maps or project summaries from historical internal documentation, internal databases, project archives or management systems
- relevant studies or research papers, from academic and industry journals
- professional networks and opportunities to engage with experts and practitioners across the APS to share research findings, reports and insights.
Embed and apply user research
Access points are digital entry points such as websites, portals, or apps.
Identify the access points users are familiar with and analyse the strengths and weaknesses of these access points to determine how they fit with your users' needs, goals and expectations.
Embed and apply user research into tools to simulate the current user experience.
Such as:
- user personas
- journey maps
- visualisations of user interactions with government services.
Evaluate existing access points
Once you understand the current state and how your users access government services online, evaluate if any existing access points are suitable for your new service.
Do this by:
- considering factors such as user experience, context, cost, and feasibility
- using the relevant decision-making framework (criterion 4) in the Digital Experience Toolkit to assess if you can reuse an existing access point or if you need to create a new one.
Document your findings
Document your findings and recommendations to apply criterion 1. To do this:
- provide evidence to support your decisions
- show how you have considered user needs, existing access points and whole-of-government objectives
- use the Digital Investment Overview (DIO) Data Collection form to report on how you have met the criterion
- use the Digital Capability Assessment Process (DCAP) template to report on how you have met the criterion.
Combining user research efforts across the DX Policy and its standards can help to reduce duplication and the cost of research.
Links
- Digital NSW: Design Standards
- NSW Government: State of the Customer reports
- NSW Government: Easy to access services
- NSW Government: Customers of NSW and customer categories
- Victorian Government: Conducting your research
- Victorian Government: Human-centred design playbook
- Queensland Government: Human-centred design resources
- Victorian Government: Design and develop a digital presence – digital guide
- Digital NSW: Plan your user research approach
- Digital NSW: User research methods
- Digital NSW: Customer journey mapping
- Australian Government Digital Profession: Journey maps
- Observatory of Public Sector Innovation: Putting innovation theory into practice
- NSW Government: Activities and Templates
Your responsibilities
To successfully meet this criterion, agencies need to:
- enhance digital experience of the service offering by using familiar platforms, products and capabilities
- demonstrate that new access points and capabilities will provide future opportunities for reuse.
When to apply
- Apply Criterion 2 during the Discovery phase to help determine if the consolidation of multiple existing access points is achievable. Apply Criterion 2 during the Alpha and Beta phases to validate that the service offer meets the needs of target users.
Questions for consideration
- What are the current pain points and needs of the target users that this digital service will address?
- Are there existing digital services/access points you should replace or consolidate to reach the optimal service offering for your new digital service?
- Is there an existing digital service doing it well that you could learn from?
- Should the service offering extend to pointing users to other related and complementary digital services?
How to apply criterion 2
Align with government priorities and outcomes
Define the scope, purpose and desired outcomes of your service offering and how it aligns with government priorities and outcomes.
Do this by identifying the outcome you seek and the value it will deliver to users and government. Document your service vision, goals and objectives concisely.
Use tools and methods such as:
- service design
- business analysis
- stakeholder engagement
- existing frameworks or strategies that are relevant to your service domain, such as the Digital Service Standard, or the Service Design and Delivery Process.
Features and functions
Describe the features and functions of your service offering and how they meet user needs and expectations.
To specify the requirements and functionalities of your service use methods such as:
- user stories
- scenarios/user journey maps
- value propositions.
Ensure that your service offering is accessible, inclusive, secure, and compliant with relevant policies and standards and prioritise the most important and essential features and functions based on:
- user research
- feedback
- testing.
Compare your offering
Compare your service offering with existing or similar services across government and identify gaps, overlaps, or opportunities for collaboration or integration.
- use the Australian Government Architecture (AGA) (criterion 3) to find and analyse existing or planned services, platforms, and capabilities that are related to your service domain or target audience
- assess if any of these services, platforms, or capabilities can be reused, shared, or adapted for your service offering, or if your service offering can complement or enhance them
- engage with other agencies or delivery partners (criterion 5) that are responsible for or involved in these services, platforms, or capabilities to explore potential synergies or dependencies.
Document your findings
Document your findings and recommendations on how to apply criterion 2, to do this:
- make sure your proposal supports your decisions and shows how you have defined and differentiated your service offering based on user needs, government priorities, and existing services
- use the Digital Investment Overview (DIO) Data Collection form to report on how you have met the criterion
- use the Digital Capability Assessment Process (DCAP) template to report on how you have met the criterion.
Links
- DTA: Digital and ICT Reuse Policy
- Data and Digital Government Strategy (DDGS)
- Australian Government Architecture (AGA)
- myGov (AGA)
- Digital Service Standard (DSS)
- Department of Finance: Commonwealth Procurement Rules
- Trusted Digital Identity Framework (TDIF)
- Digital NSW: Design Standards
- Digital NSW: Beyond digital with strategic directions and objectives for customer-centric government
- Victorian Government: Design and develop a digital presence – digital guide
- business.gov.au: Develop your SWOT analysis
- gov.uk: About GOV.UK One Login
- NSW Government: Customers of NSW and customer categories
- NSW Government: State of the Customer reports
- NSW Government: Activities and Templates
- Digital NSW: Plan your user research approach
- Digital NSW: User research methods
Your responsibilities
To successfully meet this criterion, agencies need to:
- understand available capabilities and services available for reuse
- identify and apply any relevant whole-of-government requirements and policies
- document how reuse has been considered in an agency's decisions.
When to apply
Apply Criterion 3 during the Discovery phase to help consider capabilities and services available to improve user experience and promote reuse.
Question for consideration
- Has the Australian Government Architecture (AGA) been used to determine what capabilities can be reused?
- Have you explored existing platforms that offer similar capabilities before considering a new one?
- Have considerations been made towards whole-of-government identification and authentication?
How to apply criterion 3
Understand available capabilities and services available for reuse
- Use the AGA: Review the AGA early in the design of the service to understand what is available to you.
- Avoid unnecessary investment: Consider the capabilities available through existing portals and leverage existing government investment. Use existing whole-of-government resources and guidance to help build an understanding of what platforms and capabilities are available.
- Connect and assess: Assess how well the existing capabilities align with the service’s requirements and objectives (Criterion 1). Engage other agencies to gain insights on ways to promote, use or plan for future reuse.
Identify and apply any applicable whole-of-government requirements and policies
- Know what’s required: Use the AGA to determine what requirements and policies apply to the service. Consider how to apply these across the service to enhance the user’s experience and support compliance.
Document how reuse has been considered in your decisions
- Compare your needs with existing capabilities: Clearly demonstrate how reuse has been applied in the decision-making process by documenting how the needs of the service compare with what existing platforms offer in terms of user experience, cost and efficiency.
Guidance to use the AGA to find reusable platforms and capabilities
The Digital Transformation Agency's Guidance for AI proof of concept to scale.
Your responsibilities
To successfully meet this criterion, agencies need to apply the relevant decision-making framework.
When to apply
Apply Criterion 4 during the Discovery phase to help consider capabilities and services available to improve user experience and promote reuse.
This criterion requires agencies to apply and follow a set of decision-making principles to determine where a new service is best placed within the existing landscape of government digital services. The decision-making framework will apply based on the users of the new digital service:
- citizen-facing services (for individuals)
- business and provider-facing services.
Question for consideration
- Are users accessing the new service as a private individual, as a representative of a business, as a representative of a service provider, or a combination of these roles?