Advocating for UCD training
Five ways to advocate for UCD; a new training course - Advocating for UCD in government; other workshops and courses currently live including discount codes.
Hello folks,
We hope everyone is enjoying some time in the sun 🌞.
In this newsletter we’re talking about:
- 5 ways to advocate for UCD in government
- A new training course on Advocating for UCD in government
- Other workshops and courses with discount codes
5 ways to advocate for UCD in government
This advice is from my recent linkedin post
Advocating for design and research is a part of every user-centred design (UCD) practitioners role.
Whether it’s convincing people to dedicate the time and resources to do research and design properly, getting your team to pay attention to research findings or influencing stakeholders and decision makers to be guided by design.
1. Focus on the basic “why?”
Start with questions like ‘Why does government exist?’, ‘What are we here for?’ and ‘What is the purpose of Government?’.
Bringing people back to your shared foundation gives you common ground to build on.
2. Understand how to influence different people
Each team member, stakeholder and decision making group you work with will have slightly different values and drivers.
Learn how to make arguments using the language that makes sense to them. It might be by showing them the numbers; it might be telling stories of real people; or it might be by demonstrating how legislation, policy and guidance applies. UCD practitioners need to be fluent it all of these languages.
3. Find community and look after each other
Affecting change in government can be a long and uphill road. It’s easier if you have a community to share with and exchange support.
It’s ok to say no or take a step back if you’ve reached your limit.
4. Know how your organisation works
In order to have an impact, you need to understand how decisions are made in your workplace.
Which meetings do important discussions happen in?
What processes and policies are involved?
Where and how are things documented?
5. Know when UCD is not the right choice
If you can design in a way that is less extractive, or a way to work more closely and reciprocally with communities, you should do it.
If you are just fixing something that’s broken, working to a tight timeline or with politically motivated stakeholders, UCD might be your best option (this advice comes from KA McKercher's brilliant course co-designing with care).
There are many problems with UCD. It can uphold and manifest capitalist and colonial systems. It can be extractive and exploitative. It can gatekeep design and research practices and roles. Despite this, there are still places where UCD is the best option available to us.
While we practice UCD we need to be aware of it’s limitations and harmful tendencies, mitigate and educate about them, and look for ways to bring about systematic change.
New training course on Advocating for UCD in government.
1 day in Brighton + 0.5 day follow up online
Find out more and get tickets
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.
- 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?
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.
Other workshops and courses currently live
You can find all the current courses listed on Clara’s website, including:
Introduction to User-centred Design (UCD) in Government
1 day, in-person training course in Brighton UK
Fri 20 Jun 2025
Money talks: Estimating the cost and value of service design
5 hr, remote training course
Fri 27 Jun 2025
£50 newsletter discount code for this course: MoneyApr25
Introduction to service design in Government
10 hr, remote training course
25 Sept - 3 October, 2025
20% newsletter discount code for this course: Spring20
All the best and don’t forget your SPF,
Clara & Ignacia