Advocating for UCD in government - 10 hour online training course
Advocating for UCD in government - 10 hour online training course
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This course will help designers and researchers advocate for user-centred design (UCD) in their roles, teams and organisations.
It's an 10 hour course - 4 x 2.5 hour sessions over 4 days. We will run it fully remote (online).
Part 1 - Monday 5 October, 9:30am-12:00pm
Part 2 - Tuesday 6 October, 9:30am-12:00pm + 30 mins homework
Part 3 - Monday 12 October, 9:30am-12:00pm + 30 mins homework
Part 4 - Tuesday 13 October, 9:30am-12:00pm
The biggest barriers to practicing user-centred design in government is usually the people around us.
How do we influence decision makers to fund and make space for research?
How do we convince stakeholders that users are important and need to be at the heart of our digital services?
How do we advocate for design throughout a service lifecycle?
Feeling confident about these questions is important for researchers and designers at all levels, in all organisations. It's a core part of being a UCD practitioner.
In this course, we will
- Explore the barriers to UCD in our organisations
- Look at how to talk about and demonstrate the benefits of UCD
- Think about the arguments against UCD and how we might respond to them
- Talk about influencing different types of people in different ways
- Practice understanding and getting involved in decision making, management, funding and governance
- Reflect on when might UCD not be the right approach to take
- Talk about looking after yourself and each other
- Put together a plan for your workplace
We have a template justification letter to attend, which you're welcome to use.
We can also take payment by purchase order & invoice for an extra fee, contact Clara to pay this way.
Other courses available now:
- Workshop facilitation training and clinic - Friday 19 Jun 2026
- Money talks: estimating the cost and value of service design - Friday 10 Jul 2026
About your trainer, Clara
Clara worked at the Government Digital Service (GDS) for 8 years, including 5 years on the User-centred design community team. She created 7 training courses, ran them over 70 times training over 1400 civil servants.
Clara first created this course working with NHS digital, and also ran it for GDS and the cross-government community.
Who the course is for
This course is for designers and researchers in government, and anyone else who is trying to grow and support user-centred design and research practices.
We will not be covering what user-centred design and research is or how to do it - the Introduction to service design in Government course is a great place to start with this.
This course primarily designed for people working in or with central government department, local government, NHS, Parliament, arms-length body or regulator, but the content is very relevant for anyone interested in user-centred design.
The learning on this course happens in activities and reflection. You will be invited to participate in chats, discussions, small group and individual exercises.
Testimonials and feedback
"Really engaging, nice balance of discussion and presenting. Lots of time for reflection"
"A great way of pulling together foundations. I liked the way it was run, felt calm and a good environment for sharing"
"Good balance of interaction, thinking and discussing. Loved your approach and facilitation, Clara! Overall, great day, feeling very energised from the session."
"I really loved how I was able to contribute, I did so more than in other group things. I muchly enjoyed the exercises and hearing from you and others, it helped expand my thinking. I enjoyed the smaller group work, I was able to step up in confidence with this."
"Enjoyed the groups openness today and responses to each other in the chat and on call - what a supportive environment <3"
"Very robust course - it covered all the angles, people, numbers, and even the limitations of ucd"
Discounts and opportunity tickets
We offer a group booking discount of 20% for groups of 3 or more colleagues.
We have a few subsidised or free opportunity tickets available. If you’re Black, disabled, trans, First Nations, not university educated, or if you’re working in the climate space - get in touch.
Sign ups and cancellation
We need a minimum of 6 people to run this course. If we don’t reach this number we will refund your ticket, and we will let you know about a future date for the course.
You ticket is fully refundable if you cancel it more than 14 days before the course starts, otherwise full charges will apply.
Get in touch
If you have a question or there is anything we can do to enable you to be able to fully participate in this course, contact Clara.
You can give us anonymous feedback at any time using this form.