Barriers to UCD + training courses
A list of the most common barriers to UCD, and two upcoming training courses - Advocating for UCD and Introduction to service design in government.
Hello folks,
We hope the season is treating you well as summer slides into Autumn. For those on school holidays - wishing you moments joy and solidarity.
Barriers to user-centred design (UCD)
The barriers to UCD are many and varied, although there are definitely some strong patterns across organisations.
Being able to articulate what the barrier is is the first step towards understanding it’s root cause and deciding if and how to address it.
This is a list of 18 of the most common barriers:
Lack understanding or awareness of UCD
The belief that UCD requires too much time or budget
Development and delivery prioritised over research and design
Policy and strategy isn’t user centred
Compliance and regulation complexity make it hard to prioritise user needs
Procurement and commercial arrangements don’t allow for UCD
Legacy systems and infrastructure
Hierarchy and power dynamics hindering collaboration and communication
Data isn’t shared
The organisation is siloed and fragmented
Resistance to change in the organisation
Stakeholders expect teams to work in a way that isn’t user-centred
Perception that UCD undermines personal power and control
Devaluation or mistrust of UCD because it’s been poorly done in the past
Lack of people or skills to do the work
UCD advocates not communicating well (often being dogmatic or patronising)
Limited access to users
Belief that there’s a better way because UCD is extractive and exploitative
Advocating for UCD online training
Clara will be running a training course on Advocating for UCD in October. We’ll talk about the barriers listed above and a lot more.
If you think you might like to attend, please fill in this survey to let me know which dates work for you. If you have any colleagues who might be interested in attending, please send it on to them as well.
Introduction to service design in government training
There are still some tickets left to the Introduction to Service design in government course in September. We’d love to see you there.
Our thoughts are with our sisters and brothers in Gaza suffering genocide. We all have a responsibility to do what we can 🍉
All the best,
Clara and Ignacia