User Emotion Is Overlooked in Service Design
New research from design firm Designit flags that a user's emotional state is a critical but often overlooked factor in service design. The research suggests that emotional context has a major impact on customer experience, often before any technological interaction even occurs, and should be a primary consideration in journey mapping.
The UK's Government Digital Service (GDS) explicitly incorporates emotional levels in its user journey mapping guidance. This involves tracking how a user feels as they move through a service, identifying emotional highs and lows with research insights to pinpoint where the experience is broken. The goal is to solve a "whole problem" for a user, which requires collaborating across organisational boundaries. Public sector services often engage people during moments of distress, such as applying for benefits or dealing with law enforcement, where users are vulnerable by definition. In these high-stress situations, cognitive load increases, and a poorly designed service can become an active factor in a person's distress, leading to non-compliance or disengagement. Empathetic design that provides clear, simple language, visible human support options, and reassuring messaging is therefore not a luxury but a necessity. Designing for emotional and cognitive accessibility is a growing focus of digital inclusion. The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) have been evolving to better address cognitive and learning disabilities, with WCAG 2.2 adding new criteria for focus appearance, consistent help, and redundant entry to make web content more predictable and less demanding. Practices like using plain language, ensuring consistent layouts, and minimizing distractions benefit all users, especially those experiencing stress or cognitive overload. Across Europe, public sector digital transformation projects are increasingly adopting service design principles to bridge the gap between policy intent and citizen experience. Initiatives like France's DITP (Direction Interministérielle de la Transformation Publique) and Finland's "Designers in Government" aim to create more user-centered and adaptive governance. This shift recognizes that understanding the motivations, anxieties, and constraints of citizens is fundamental to delivering effective public services. Artificial intelligence is emerging as a tool to enhance empathetic service delivery, not just automate tasks. In the UK's Ministry of Justice, for example, AI is used to create chatbots that help victims of crime understand their rights, providing quick and consistent information. The OECD notes that while AI adoption in public services is still experimental, it offers the potential to analyze public feedback in real-time to identify emotional pain points across platforms. Complex services, like those in research funding, involve a wide ecosystem of stakeholders beyond the primary user, including administrators, reviewers, and policymakers. Stakeholder mapping is a key service design tool used in government to visualize this ecosystem, understand relationships and potential frictions, and ensure the service is designed with a comprehensive view of all actors' needs and influence. This systemic approach helps align the service with both user needs and policy goals.
