Service Pattern Hack Day 1 Recap

A Service Pattern Language #6

Thank you to everyone who joined our first Service Pattern Hack Day on Wednesday, 19 Nov!

We had participants from Hong Kong, UK, Botswana, and Burkina Faso representing a wide range of public sector organisations and bringing expertise across various digital roles.

During the session, we kicked off with an introduction to GovStack and the concept of service patterns, before breaking into breakout sessions.

Anatomy of a service pattern, the steps and underlying building blocks

Service pattern sessions

We had a brilliant mix of people in the room and made real progress across three emerging patterns: GovChat, Scheduling, and Admin Interfaces

GovChat

The group mapped the user journey for a government chat function, whether on a website or platforms like WhatsApp. We explored:

• how conversational interfaces can help people find information

• when they should escalate to a human

• how language detection and accessible design can create a more inclusive experience

• the tension between a “search + form creation” tool and an “advice-giving” tool

Scheduling

Using scenarios like booking a doctor’s appointment, we drafted a pattern that works across many contexts. We found that:

• most booking journeys share a highly consistent flow

• lots of underlying steps come from existing patterns like find, check eligibility, and triage

• accessibility should sit across the whole pattern, with questions on whether a separate accessibility patterns are needed

Admin Interfaces

We examined a wide range of scenarios across various roles, like caseworkers, supervisors, policy teams, and HR, where admin interfaces are required. We mapped the basic common steps underlying these diverse journeys. Key insights:

• the common patterns need to recognise the diversity of admin contexts while still offering shared structure

• the unhappy paths are crucial to identify where errors, unintended actions, and security concerns emerge

• we ought to consider the corresponding user-facing interfaces that act as simple ‘admin’ dashboards for people to track their applications and interactions with the government

What’s next

We are hosting the second Service Pattern Hack Day this Thursday, 27 November at 14:00 GMT.

We will design patterns for E-signature, Wallet and Payment.

🚀 Register here on Eventrbite to attend

Here is the link to the mural board if you would like to add any insights into the board or revisit the work from Day 1

Thank you again for your energy and thoughtful contributions! We’re excited to continue the journey with you this week.

---

                         Service Pattern Lean Coffee: Every 1st Thursday 14:00 CET

                                Meeting link: https://meet.google.com/mfn-tjvt-csc

---

                                  Thanks for reading A Service Pattern Language! 

                                     Subscribe for free to receive new posts and 

                                                             support our work.

Or sign up to the working group or share with someone who might be interested

From Betty Mwema, Laurence Berry and Stefan Draskic.

---