Design Principles

We hope to develop a set of common design principles that can be used across organizations and continuously evolved and adapted collectively. It's important that we explore and understand the entirety of public services together.

What experience do we want to give citizens?

We need to collectively define what makes a good user experience for citizens and how we can best create this. This requires more insight and cross-organizational collaboration.

Examples of experiences we want citizens to have when interacting with us:

• I get help to solve what I need to do
• This is simple and understandable
• This is familiar to me
• This motivates me
• I feel included

Design principles that have been developed in the work with Altinn:

• Put users' needs first
  We will actively use insights about user needs. All services should solve real problems for users. We will make decisions based on research, user insights, and data.

• Hide complexity
  We will create simple and clear services. We will avoid design, text, steps, or elements that make it difficult for users or give them too much cognitive load. Services can be complex on the backend, but the user should perceive them as simple and user-friendly.

• Create cohesion
  We will work to ensure citizens get a cohesive user experience. We will use consistent language and the same recognizable components across solutions. Users should feel familiar with the environment and not have to learn something new if they have done something similar elsewhere.

• Create motivating visual design
  The visual design should make users feel secure in their dialogue with public services and they should experience us as friendly. We will design simple interfaces with clear interaction elements and colorful illustrations to create a good atmosphere. All visual elements that require user action should be clear.

• Ensure the service is accessible to everyone
  We will create services that are inclusive and accessible to all. All services must meet universal design requirements. We reuse quality-assured components to give users the best possible accessibility.

Other design principles developed in the public sector:

• Norwegian Tax Administration: Design rules of thumb
• NAV: User experience principles
• Brønnøysund Register Centre: 15 principles for good service design
• Brønnøysund Register Centre: 11 principles for good design
• Brønnøysund Register Centre: Usability policy
• Digdir: Design principles for Death and Inheritance
• Helsenorge: Design principles for Helsenorge
• Entur: Design principles for Entur
• Forum for Usability: Principles for collaboration in the public sector (not finalized and shared)

Outside Norway:

• UK charity sector: 10 design principles to help charities build better digital services
• Gov.je: Digital design principles for gov.je
• Gov.uk: Government Design Principles for Gov.uk
• US Gov: Design principles for US Gov
• Australia: Design principles for Australia

Other relevant sources:

• Interaction Design Foundation: Design principles
• Jon Yablonski: Laws of UX
• Netlife Blog: 5 principles for good user experience