Digital

  • Paving the way to omnichannel

    2nd April 2025 by

    Guest blog from Emma Jones, Lead Content Designer at Social Security Scotland. An accessible, inclusive way to communicate At Social Security Scotland, we are at the start of a journey to move from ‘letters as default’ to a more inclusive, accessible approach. An approach where the method of communication meets the needs of the client....

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  • Care, code and text: Accelerating understanding of care data

    28th March 2025 by

    Guest blog post by Sam Henderson-Palmer, Information Analyst, Care Inspectorate. The Data Science and Innovation Accelerator is a programme for public sector organisations in Scotland designed to support the innovative use of data to solve real-world business problems or discover new opportunities. In his blog, Sam Henderson-Palmer, Information Analyst in the Risk and Intelligence team...

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  • Journey mapping as a content design tool

    28th March 2025 by

    Guest blog from Claire Robertson, Senior Content Designer at Social Security Scotland. “Journey mapping is completely fundamental to content design” (Sarah Winters and Rachel Edwards, Content Design, second edition) As content designers everything we do is based on user needs. User needs are the bread and butter of any user centred design (UCD) team. Every...

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  • Refreshing Scotland’s Digital Strategy, part 2

    24th March 2025 by

    Guest blog post by Colin Birchenall, Chief Technology Officer, the Digital Office for Scottish Local Government. At the heart of Scotland’s Digital Strategy is the recognition that digital is a fundamental enabler for achieving the country’s priorities. Whether it is economic growth, social inclusion, or environmental sustainability, digital solutions play a crucial role in driving...

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  • Reflections from SEPA’s Future Flood and Incident Messaging Service programme team

    19th March 2025 by

    Guest blog by Laura Johnstone, Continuous Improvement team, Digital Assurance Office. Introduction SEPA (Scottish Environment Protection Agency) is Scotland’s environmental regulator and the national flood forecasting, flood warning and strategic flood management authority. The Future Flood and Incident Messaging Service (FFIMS) programme was initiated in 2020 to replace the previous Flood Warning Dissemination System and digitally...

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  • We made a content design system in 4 weeks

    18th March 2025 by

    Guest blog post from Andy Robertson, Senior Content Designer, Social Security Scotland. We built a design system for our intranet. It creates a consistent user experience for our colleagues processing benefit applications. The design system is a library of reusable content and patterns. Here is an overview of our approach to plan, write and build...

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  • Design in Action (Part 3: Accessible design)

    4th March 2025 by

    Blog by Catriona Binnie, Senior User Researcher in the ScotPayments team, on the process the UCD team follow to ensure we’re building an accessible payments service for all public sector staff.   We want ScotPayments to be easy to use for all public sector staff. Accessibility for our user base is key. What are we doing...

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  • ScotAccount recognised for having significant impact on public services

    21st February 2025 by

    Blog post by Scottish Government’s ScotAccount team. The ScotAccount team were delighted to join colleagues from Disclosure Scotland at the Holyrood Connect Digital Health and Care Awards in Edinburgh on 18th February 2025. The teams were thrilled to be short-listed for the Digital Service Transformation Award for their collaborative delivery of ‘PVG Online’.  The Digital...

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  • How designing for low English literacy empowers everyone

    21st February 2025 by

    Guest blog from Marta McCullough, Content Designer, Social Security Scotland. Imagine I’d named this blog ‘Jak projektowanie z myślą o osobach z niskim poziomem znajomości angielskiego wzmacnia pozycję wszystkich klientów’. Most of you, unless you speak Polish, would have thought ‘that page is not for me.’ If I’d written this blog in a language that’s...

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  • Iteration and continuous improvement – a Blockbuster story?

    12th February 2025 by

    Guest blog from Jayne Purcell, Service Design Lead, Social Security Scotland. Iteration and continuous improvement are words I hear a lot. What I have observed over the years is that iteration and continuous improvement usually means iterating and improving the current design, with not enough effort put into exploring the future and the vision to...

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