Weeknotes: Sunday 06 April 2025

Sticky notes under service pattern categories

The past few weeks have felt like a bit of a rollercoaster. Some difficult things to deal with, but I think I’m through the other side now. Things feel lighter, and the spring sunshine is helping — though we’ll see how long it lasts in Wales…

In the meantime, here’s what I’ve been working on and thinking about this week:

• We’ve finished testing improvements to the website. Next step is to review the findings, make changes based on feedback, and get things ready for implementation. I imagine this’ll be the last bit of website work for now, as we’re due to pick up the service manual again soon.
• We ran a service patterns workshop in Ebbw Vale with Blaenau Gwent Council. Thankfully Liam could run with it without me so I could take a step back as I wasn’t feeling great. It was brilliant to have Loubna and Alex there, and meet Alex in person for the first time. I’ve been calling these “designer for a day” workshops — they’re a compressed design sprint where teams define users, map internal services into user-facing ones (turning nouns into verbs), prototype it on paper, and test it for usability and stress.

We brought component cut-outs this time!

• A few conversations gave me things to think about. Like how we define pattern categories — what makes “apply” different from “request”? Is “cancel” a type of “tell” or its own thing? Even though I was sceptical about a service pattern library for Wales, it’s becoming clearer that people do see the value and usefulness. We’ll need to remember that like all design tools — service manuals, design systems, pattern libraries — you can’t just build it and people will use it. They need ongoing care and community engagement.
• I had some good conversations this week that lifted my spirits. I met product managers Phil and Steffan for a drink while they were in Cardiff. Steffan insists it’s me who’s far away, not him — he’s still not convinced Cardiff is the centre of the universe. Catching up with Gabi gave me some ideas I’m excited for us to explore together. And talking with Loubna, Liam and Alex always gives me a lift — I’m looking forward to seeing what we do together this year.
• I caught up with Edwina to talk about what she’s hoping for from our communities of practice this year. The big goal is more participation and engagement, and bringing the work from our projects into these community spaces. There’s loads of potential here, and I’m already thinking about how we could connect this with the service manual work.
• Liam roped me into doing a talk at UX Wales next week: Making sense of service patterns. I was a bit stressed at first, but once I started storyboarding it felt doable — and Liam seems happy with it. We’re keeping it pretty informal. We’re assuming most attendees won’t have public sector backgrounds, so I’m opening with some context and expectations: public design is boring design. What makes it interesting is the complexity of the environment it happens in — and how tricky that is to navigate. Then Liam will lead on the service patterns work and we’re planning to try out a practical activity too. We’ll see how it goes.
• The idea of user-centred design — especially content design — as cultural hacking in public sector organisations is still on my mind. I don’t quite know what I want to say yet, but talking to Gabi gave me some new threads to pull. (Related: Culture hacking — the essentials.)
• I’ve also been reflecting on things that have shaped my approach to work and design that I’d completely forgotten were there. The Spanish 15-M movement, Deleuze and Guattari, and Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed. I want to dig into these and see what connections might be there. I haven’t thought about them in over a decade, so I’m not sure what brought them back into my mind recently.
• A blog post: Quit saying ‘No’! Say ‘yes through options…

Check my previous weeknotes.