On Monday two permanent UCD people join Made Tech. I’m dead excited about it.
Delegating power 🌞
This week our MHCLG housing data team has been sketching some possible new service features. In particular how multiple people and organisations might collaborate on submitting different data about the same properties. It’s uncommon for one person or organisation to have all the answers. Our current system only allows one person to update a property record.
So we’ve been sketching how someone, say from a local council, might invite a teammate or housing association to collaborate on completing a record. As a starting point, we copied collaboration invite patterns Google uses in lots of its products.
Our intention wasn’t to design interfaces to test with users but to visualise key ideas we can more easily discuss as a team. I’ve often found that drawings are faster than words alone for teams to discuss software and service design ideas. Especially when the thing doesn’t exist yet. Having something to point at, however scruffy, is a powerful thing.
Most software makes it hard for people to work in groups, which is something we naturally do in the real world. This applies to public services too. Be that group a team of council workers submitting housing data or a family applying for benefits. A big part of public services letting people do things in groups is the ability to delegate power to someone you trust. There are big and little examples of this, such as power of attorney and having a loved one collect medication on your behalf.
We need many more public services to allow people to delegate power. Both for big life events and little moments we rely on each other. Doing so will make public services more inclusive of how we really live.
Adjusting a machine that learns 🎛️
Variants pending, my partner and me are having a wedding in October. So this week I ordered a made-to-fit suit from hockerty.uk. I bought a tape measure, expecting to have to submit every tiny measurement. However just giving my height, weight, age and body shapes, the service guessed my measurements. The service also gave me the option to edit the guessed measurements, which I did for a couple, but most were bang on.
This is a clear example of showing someone when a service is making automated decisions about them. Plus giving them the power to override decisions. Which I presume helps train the service to make more accurate decisions in future.
Last words for now 🪁
Continuing the theme of delegation, this will be the last newsletter from me for now. With new UCD people joining, we’ll be taking turns to write these weekly posts. I’m excited about new voices and perspectives being shared here.
See you in a few weeks 😎