Where: Online, on Zoom

This is an introductory course into service design in Government. It's an 10 hour course - 4 x 2.5 hour sessions over 4 days. We will run it fully remote (online).

This course is relevant for designers, researchers, product people, policy people, delivery people, BAs, data, developers and technologists - anyone working in digital products and services in Government.

Part 1: Monday 9 November 2026 ,9:30am - 12pm GMT
Part 2: Tuesday 10 November 2026 ,9:30am - 12pm GMT + 30 mins homework
Part 3: Monday 16 November 2026 ,9:30am - 12pm GMT + 30 mins homework
Part 4: Tuesday 17 November 2026 ,9:30am - 12pm GMT

We can also take payment by purchase order & invoice for an extra fee, get in touch with us at ucdtrainingcourse@gmail.com to pay this way. We offer a 20% discount if you purchase 3 or more tickets for a group of colleagues.

We have a few subsidised or free 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 ucdtrainingcourse@gmail.com

We have a template justification letter to attend, which you're welcome to use.

What you’ll learn

• What a service is and what service design is

• The benefits of service design

• What a service designer does

• How is a service designers’ approach different from other team members

• How to find, use and apply different service design tools

• How to frame a problem

• How to use a journey map to analyse a service

• How service design can impact designing services to be equitable and just for users

• How service design applies to your work

The training contains some theory and lots of interactive exercises and activities (individual, in pairs and in groups). You'll meet lots of people from many different roles and organisations in government. Attendees will not need to prepare anything, and no prior knowledge is required. There will be some homework but it shouldn't take more than 30 mins to complete.

Who it’s for

This course is for anyone who wants to learn more about service design in the public sector in the UK. You might not have a service designer in your team but you want to learn how to better do service design in your team.

You might be a designer new to government, or a product, delivery, tech, user research or data person - this course will help any team member to get an understanding of service design and learn practical tools to apply to their work.

This course is aimed at people working in central government department, local government, NHS, Parliament, arms-length body or regulator. Or people who want to move into the public sector.

This course will not make you a service designer but it will give you practical tools to apply service design thinking to your work.

You must be able to attend all 4 parts of the course, including homework.

Breastfeeding or chestfeeding in the course is welcome.

"This is a great introductory course to understanding Service Design in government delivered by Clara and Ignacia, who are both well versed in this space with many years of experience between them. I really enjoyed participating and learning with and from others across government."

"I got a real insight into the scope of the role of a service designer and how to approach projects with a service design mindset. Clara and Ignacia were warm, engaging and knowledgeable facilitators. I cannot recommend the course highly enough!"

"Excellently delivered, engaging and good mix of theory and practice, working on fictional services and thinking about our own services. It was also good to hear about real examples from your work, how you approached problems and what worked and what didn't."

"Great to learn how people approach problem-solving and making sense of complexity through activities, reflections, questions"

"Thank you for helping me feel included as someone based outside of the UK! :)"

"Loved the questions Clara & Ignacia asked us off the back of our original thinkings so we considered another way."

"Great sessions - really like the blend between theory and discussing examples in practice"

"Loved the positivity of the teachers, and it's been great to have a wide range of people from different professions all sharing their passion for service design."

"Great pace and balance with learned materials and resources, discussion and exercises"

"Feeling some new positive energy to take on my work after this training! Thanks:)"

About the trainers

Ignacia

Ignacia is an independent design consultant, specialising in service design, research and design strategy.

She built and led design teams and is a skilled design trainer, mentor and facilitator. She’s helped teams and organisations design and deliver joined-up, equitable, inclusive, and accessible services.

Ignacia has spent the last 5 years at the Government Digital Service as a Lead Service Designer, where she worked on numerous high profile services - like GOV.UK's Brexit and Covid content and the GOV.UK Design System. Including the design of governance models, support systems and all the things that happen in the background to enable good services for users.

You can find Ignacia on bluesky or linkedin

Clara

Clara is an independent designer, researcher and trainer. She has been working in the industry for over 18 years and has done a lot of work in building capability through training and community-based education. 

Clara worked at the Government Digital Service as a Lead Designer for 8 years. During this time she developed and ran 7 training courses at GDS for the cross-government community, training 1000s of civil servants.

She is determined to bring equity and justice into public sector digital transformation. She’s Australian, an immigrant, a part-time worker, a parent and a grieving daughter.

You can find Clara on bluesky or linkedin

Other courses currently available

Workshop facilitation training and clinic
Friday 19 Jun 2026

Money talks: estimating the cost and value of service design
Friday 10 Jul 2026

Advocating for UCD in government
Monday 5 October - Tuesday 13 October 2026

More about the course 

1. Introduction to designing services:

• Understanding what a service is
• Introducing the principles and fundamentals of designing good services in the public sector
• Understanding how to use the service design lens and how it applies to work carried out in the public sector
• Working across organisational boundaries and using service communities as a framework

2. User-Centred Design:

• Exploring why users are central to the work we do in Government and wider public sector
• Identifying different types of users for a service. Develop a shared language and way to prioritise work as a team
• Exploring how service design interacts with other roles in a multidisciplinary team

3. Service design tools and methods:

• How to frame a problem to ensure teams are set to solve the right problems
• Applying service design tools to map and analyse the user's journey front to back, end to end, and across channels
• Identifying pain points, waste points, and areas for improvement at different levels
• How to find, use and apply different service design tools

4. Applying service design and user-centred design:

• Case studies and real-world examples of using service design and UCD in the public sector
• Intentionally designing services that are equitable for users, with a focus on reflecting on our work and identifying those who are most likely to be excluded, underrepresented and unable to realise the benefit of the service
• Plan a service design approach to your current project

We have a retro board throughout the sessions so that participants can add questions (which we review every day). We aim to answer them during the activities or if there are time constraints we provide answers within the retro board.

Sign ups

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.

Cancellation and refund policy

Course fees are non-refundable if cancelled less than 7 days before the course starts.

Please get in touch as soon as possible if you need to cancel your place on a course.

A 10% fee will apply if cancelled more than 7 days before course commencement to cover processing fees.

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 ucdtrainingcourse@gmail.com