Log in or create a free Rosenverse account to watch this video.
Log in Create free account100s of community videos are available to free members. Conference talks are generally available to Gold members.
Communities of Practice for Civic Design
Summary
At the April Civic Design Community call, hear from new community curator Kara Kane. She shares her experience scaling and leading the UK government’s user-centered design (UCD) communities and International Design in Government community while working at the Government Digital Service. Kara talks about how communities of practice are central to the transformation of public services. The communities she developed built design capability, aimed to create a culture of equity and inclusion and were core to developing and delivering standards and guidance for government.
Key Insights
-
•
Communities of practice require active leadership and cannot be self-sustaining or entirely self-organized.
-
•
The UK Government Digital Service’s user-centered design community included around 3,500 to 4,000 practitioners across multiple government departments and public sector bodies.
-
•
Community gatherings with structured agendas but ample breaks foster both knowledge sharing and informal connections necessary in government work.
-
•
Scaling training is achieved by building a network of facilitators from within the community rather than relying solely on a central team.
-
•
Visual tools like posters, stickers, and physical artifacts help embed design principles and culture, though replicating these in remote work is challenging.
-
•
The UK Government Design System is community-driven, with contributions reviewed by a working group and the community manager facilitating co-design workshops.
-
•
Clear, consolidated communication like monthly newsletters is essential to help large, distributed communities stay informed without overload.
-
•
Inclusive practices, including recruitment events for underrepresented groups and tailored courses, improve diversity and accessibility within the community.
-
•
The International Design and Government Community connects over 2,500 public sector designers across 70+ countries, fostering shared learning internationally.
-
•
Despite strong community impact, lack of internal advocacy and competing priorities (e.g., COVID, Brexit) can lead to funding loss, highlighting the need for ongoing senior stakeholder engagement.
Notable Quotes
"There is no such thing as a self-organized community; they just don’t work and fall apart without leadership."
"Communities are the glue that bring together work across silos, people, and practice."
"We ran community gatherings with themes, presentations, and breaks, because people needed space to just chat and connect."
"Scaling training happened by finding people in the community who could run sessions independently."
"The government UK Design System only works if the community contributes to it."
"Having a monthly newsletter gave people one place to go instead of having to check Slack or emails all the time."
"We created recruitment events for underrepresented groups because it was harder for them to get permission and sign up in time otherwise."
"The international design government community started by reaching out individually via Twitter to people in governments around the world."
"The team was defunded partly because we didn’t engage enough internally to make the case for our work."
"We thought a maturity model for user-centered design would have shown senior stakeholders the impact we were having, but we never had time to build it."
Or choose a question:
More Videos
"All three themes and all speakers you’ll hear came together through inclusive collaboration and insightful perspectives."
Bria AlexanderTheme Two Intro
October 3, 2023
"Survival can feel like a roller coaster with big energy spikes and drops, often leaving us completely depleted."
Ariba JahanTeam Resiliency Through a Pandemic
January 8, 2024
"Many big companies now have roles related to ecosystem design like VP or senior managers of ecosystem."
Cornelius RachieruHandling Complexity: Framing a Scale of Design
June 9, 2021
"Situational use cases help us consider the realities outside the business problem that impact user success."
Megan Clegg Michael Haggerty-Villa Alexis MorinSpace for Everyone: Reframing Accessibility Through a Wider Lens
June 10, 2021
"Publishing a component library means anyone can update titles or roles, and it updates everywhere at once."
Saara Kamppari-MillerCartography for Design Communities
September 10, 2025
"The UK Government Digital Service launched 10 years ago, kicking off a new era in digital public service."
Kara KaneTheme One Intro
November 16, 2022
"Nearly a third of the 65 mental health commission recommendations call for co-design, which is pretty exciting."
Natalia RadywylCo-Designing New Power in Australia's Public Sector
November 16, 2022
"If you put garbage in, garbage comes out – AI reflects the biases in its training data."
Nancy DouyonWe'll Figure That Out in the Next Launch: Enterprise Tech's Nobility Complex
June 15, 2018
"Eval is the engineering word for evaluation, but also what researchers and UX designers naturally do."
Peter Van DijckBuilding the Rosenbot
June 4, 2024