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Martin Jordan

@martinjordan.com

2.9K followers 820 following 1.7K posts

Making services work better for all people—Head of Design & User Research at the German govt’s Digital Service, previously Head of #ServiceDesign at the UK’s Government Digital Service, int’l #GovDesign community co-lead, 🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈 ally martinjordan.com

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Martin Jordan @martinjordan.com · Nov 16

Hi, new and old followers!

Time for a re-introduction—
I’m working as the (still) only Head of Design & User Research in German gov’t. I’m leading a team of 35 in-house UI, UX & service designers, content designers & user researchers who work on justice, benefits & tax services.

I work in the open

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Reposted by Martin Jordan

Richard Morton @accessibleweb.bsky.social · 1d

I am recruiting a Senior Accessibility Specialist to be part of the Government Digital Service accessibility and digital inclusion team. Applications open until Sunday 26th October. www.civilservicejobs.service.gov.uk/csr/index.cg...

#a11y #Accessibility #AccessibilityRegulations

Quick Check Needed

www.civilservicejobs.service.gov.uk

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Martin Jordan @martinjordan.com · 1d

I enjoy tinkering with my ever-unfinished website.

A little while ago, I added a section on upcoming events.

Not that anyone would come there because of the listing, but it helps me create a sense of order for myself.

Partial screenshot of a website listing talks and workshops on public design in October and November 2025, with links to the event pages

Martin Jordan @martinjordan.com · 2d

😆 It will be our ages, indeed.

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Martin Jordan @martinjordan.com · 2d

What lives do we want to live?

On Saturday, I moderated an interactive half-day ‘Design our lives’ workshop for my partner and me.

As part of this, we looked at where we are & peeked into 2050.

We incorporated some of the workshop sheets from Bill Burnett & Dave Evans’ book ‘Designing Your Life’.

A wall with colorful sheets and sticky notes, many out of focus – in focus is a larger note saying ‘Ideas and action’ with a scribble of a bulb and a flash

A wall with various sticky notes out of focus, some aligned along a rainbow-coloured stripe, in focus are 2 square notes – 1 says ‘2050’, the other says 64 and 68 with cartoon scribbles of people next to the numbers

Various coloured sticky notes stuck to a wall vertically, some are out of focus; the ones in focus say: achievements, dimensions & lenses, fears, place, circumstance

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Martin Jordan @martinjordan.com · 4d

And it’s not coming from the centre 🙃

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Martin Jordan @martinjordan.com · 4d

As a public servant, I write weekly notes to let people see what I do.

As the #ServiceStandard regulation came into effect this week, I co-led a workshop at #SCCON25 to introduce it to more people and help them understand potential challenges associated with it.

I also welcomed a new designer.

Week #179 at the Digital Service: Notes for 29 September–3 October

As the Service Standard regulation came into effect this week, Martin co-led a workshop at the Smart Country Convention to introduce more people to it and understand their potential challenges with it...

verwaltungsgestaltung.de

Martin Jordan @martinjordan.com · 6d

Everything else would be a waste of taxpayers’ money. Hard to justify.

Martin Jordan @martinjordan.com · 6d

Thanks to @benaldo.bsky.social and team for their ongoing work.

As we learned a few years ago: The global impact of the UK #ServiceStandard is significant.

I am grateful for the opportunity to piggyback on well-tested material.

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Martin Jordan @martinjordan.com · 6d

The GOV.UK Service Manual content has been published under the Open Government Licence 3.0, which allows reuse with attribution.

We are massively grateful for this work in the open approach.

It enables us to enhance the handbook section of the German #ServiceStandard and expedite our work.

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Martin Jordan @martinjordan.com · 6d

We will not reinvent the wheel.

There’s no need to produce government guidance when excellent guidance exists elsewhere.

That is why we have proudly adopted the ‘Finding participants for user research’ content from GOV.UK

🇩🇪
servicestandard.gov.de/handbuch/anl...

🇬🇧
www.gov.uk/service-manu...

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Martin Jordan @martinjordan.com · 7d

That is such a precise description!

I have seen all of these characters.

Situationally, I can also imagine that cross-government people perceived my team as ‘complainers’. We would tell what’s missing, though. But also find more missing things later.