deborahamzil
Written 36 posts
What is data.gov.scot and why are we doing it?
3rd June 2026
This blog post has been written by the Open Data team in the Data Division of the Scottish Government’s Digital Directorate. We are building data.gov.scot, a new service to make it easier to find, access and reuse Scotland’s data. This is the first in a series of blog posts which we’ll be releasing over the…
Improving data access for ethical research and innovation
23rd March 2026
Blog post by Chris Bergin, Strategic Data Policy Adviser, in the Scottish Government’s Digital Citizen Division. Today marks the publication of an Operational Framework to support the secure and ethical use of public sector data, by Scotland’s innovators and researchers. Scotland’s public sector personal data is a rich resource, that if used in…
Supply25: supplier assurance and supply chain management fit for the twenty-first century!
18th March 2026
Lee Rutherford, Sam Ernstzen and Mark McKenny in the Scottish Government’s Digital Directorate and CivTech 9.5 co-sponsors blog about addressing the challenges of procurement. Across Scotland, the public sector navigates hundreds of thousands of procurements every year. These range from quick, routine purchases to major, highly complex projects, and the private sector faces a similarly…
Reflections on FutureScot’s Digital Scotland conference
19th January 2026
Becca Fairless, Head of Digital Strategy and Policy in the Scottish Government blogs about launching our refreshed joint Digital Strategy for Scotland at a recent digital conference. At the end of last year we published our refreshed Vision for digital in Scotland alongside our joint Delivery Plan for Sustainable Digital Public Services. We launched this at FutureScot’s Digital Scotland…
Refreshing Scotland’s Digital Strategy: Part 5 – What is this all about?
21st October 2025
Guest blog by Martyn Wallace, Chief Digital Officer, Digital Office for Scottish Local Government. Have you ever wondered what all this talk about Scotland’s “Digital Strategy” actually means for you? Maybe you’ve seen in the series of blogs from my colleagues mentioning how COSLA, the Digital Office, and the Scottish Government have teamed up to shape…
Designing complex content in the age of Artificial Intelligence (AI)
10th October 2025
Guest blog post by Therese Hooper, Lead Content Designer in Social Security Scotland. This blog is about the tools I used to tackle a complicated content challenge, working in a new cross-functional team facing major time constraints. The role of content design You will have heard this before. A content designer’s role is not just…
Drawing is designing
6th October 2025
Guest blog post by Andy Robertson, Senior Content Designer in Social Security Scotland. In the age of shiny new Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools, I’m making the case for pen and paper. As a senior content designer in government, here’s how I use my drawing skills. I love to draw Some of my strongest…
Refreshing Scotland’s Digital Strategy, part 4: collaboration and engagement
20th August 2025
Blog post by Becca Fairless, Head of Digital Strategy and Policy, Scottish Government Welcome to the fourth edition of our blog-along as we work with our colleagues in local government to refresh the Digital Strategy for Scotland. Last time Sam Hill, one of the designers who supported our engagement effort, blogged about the theory of…
Refreshing Scotland’s Digital Strategy, part 3: Using co-design in stakeholder engagement
23rd July 2025
Blog post by Sam Hill, Senior User Researcher in Scottish Government’s Digital Directorate. I’m a user researcher. This is a profession that specialises in running processes of learning together, testing things out, before reflecting on how well those changes went, or might go if we were to implement them. The Scottish Approach to Service Design is…
Writing for wellbeing: why we created a trauma and stress writing guide
18th June 2025
Guest blog from Sarah Waterfield, Senior Content Designer at Social Security Scotland. At Social Security Scotland, we know that language matters. The words we use in our communications and webpages shape how people experience our service. Many of our clients have faced difficult life events or negative experiences with benefits. If our language is complex…