Martin Jordan
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martinjordan.com
Martin Jordan
@martinjordan.com
3K followers 850 following 1.9K 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
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We are revisiting design critiques in our first design team meeting of the year.

We are discussing @borism.bsky.social’s 2022 article → borism.medium.com/design-criti..., bits from the book ‘Discussing design’ by Adam Connor and Aaron Irzarry, and GDS’s tips posters:

github.com/alphagov/gov...
3 light-turquoise posters on ‘when giving feedback on work’, in bigger type, they say: ‘be specific‘; ‘be constructive’; ‘talk about the work, not the person’ 2 light-pink posters on ‘when asking for feedback on work’, in bigger type, they say: ‘give some background‘; ‘say exactly what you want’ 3 light-blue posters on ‘when receiving feedback on work’, in bigger type, they say: ‘don’t talk too much‘; ‘take notes’
January 8, 2026 at 10:36 AM
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Thanks for sending this over, @publicdigital.bsky.social!

Looking forward to reading your essays, @kwastell.bsky.social @benterrett.bsky.social @egawen.bsky.social
A green booklet sitting on a white marble table over an oak wooden floor; its cover says: “Competitive advantage by design: Achieving meaningful change starts with understanding your customers” with a pixelated moon-like graphic below
January 1, 2026 at 2:40 PM
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Finally up: After 8 years, my brother-in-law put up the Neutra House Numbers.

They are made from anodised aluminium, refined by the font designers from House Industries after designs by Richard Neutra in the 1930s.

Currently, Herman Miller has a discount

store.hermanmiller.com/decor-house-...
Two dark geometrical numbers, 1 and 3, mounted on a white wall with wooden beams, with some fairy lights hanging below
December 25, 2025 at 11:13 AM
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A nice button: a physical dial to lower the volume of the train service announcement in a Swiss SBB carriage.

It makes satisfying clicks.
A black dial on a blue console with a little abstract icon, displaying a speaker on volume, next to some blue velvet text her covered panel
December 23, 2025 at 10:42 AM
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Should this instil joy, horror, or gratitude in me?

Miro tells me that in 2025, I spent:
489 hours ‘innovating’ with others
744 hours ‘getting creative’ on a canvas
while working with other 138 people

I spared 3,906 paper stickies, but have no idea about Miro’s energy use.
A visual data dashboard with a few facts: 3906 bright ideas, innovated with 138 people, collaborated across 3 countries, Miro style: the Great 1%, henceforth, you shall be known as Martin the Great. Your moral royalty!
December 11, 2025 at 11:57 AM
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Making space for the voice of the user:

Once a month in our all hands meeting at @digitalservice.bund.de, a user researcher presents insights from a user research session and shares how it informs the service work.

Today, @joshuanowak.bsky.social shared the perspective of an indebted user.
Interview participants who had their bank account blocked due to debt: “ I noticed it when I was at a Rewe [...] and I was standing at the checkout right before a public holiday and wanted to pay, and then it said the transaction was not possible. Yeah, that's a bit annoying because you don't get informed immediately; you only get the mail later that your account has been garnished. Which, honestly, I think is pretty awful. And then you have to make a lot of phone calls and figure out who is the person or entity that wants money from me, and then it takes time again until the account is reactivated. So it's really a nasty, horrible process that just takes way too long. | Googled it [...] and immediately realized, okay, first step is the protected account (P-Konto), to protect yourself so that they don't take away everything, even below the minimum subsistence level. Something like that.
December 11, 2025 at 9:01 AM
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What a push for our discourse on #wholeServices from
@ec.europa.eu & @oecdgovernance.bsky.social – through their 2-year project on life events.

I am still in awe of what I saw in Thursday’s workshop.

Supported by deep cross-country research, new thorough guidance, events and tool sets are coming.
Dozens of workshop cards in different colours and with different descriptions and icons spread across a table in a professional meeting room, a few cards have pink sticky notes; a persons hands covers a few cards
December 6, 2025 at 3:03 PM
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New #GovDesign role on my little job board 🔔

The Federal Court of Auditors (Bundesrechnungshof) is looking for a communications designer in Bonn.

Other #designJobs at @drvrheinland.bsky.social @digitalservice.bund.de @sprind-de.bsky.social remain open.

verwaltungsgestaltung.de#positionen
Partial screenshot of a website displaying 4 open design positions: • a communication design role in Bonn at the German Federal Court of Auditors • a UX/UI design role at the German state pension service in Speyer • a service design opening at the Digital Service in Berlin • a UX/UI design role for the EU digital identity wallet app remote
December 6, 2025 at 12:38 PM
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What a fruitful day with international #GovDesign colleagues at the @oecdgovernance.bsky.social on ‘life events’ today!

I got to share some of our work at @digitalservice.bund.de in a talk on ‘Designing for life events in German government’, and got plenty of inspiration from EU and OECD colleagues
A formal table setting with people sitting in a large conference room, signs in front of people say European Commission, Slovenia, Lituania, Norway, and Germany
December 4, 2025 at 6:14 PM
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Here is some of its bumpiness:

Yesterday, it took about 10 attempts to read the data from the ID card’s NFC chip.

It consistently stopped at 50% and returned an error.

Most users give up after attempt 3 or so.

I don’t.

I know it works, but not if the culprit is the chip, the app, or Apple’s NFC
A smartphone on a table displaying an error message saying: Identify, authentication failed, connection to ID card lost“, with a button below reading “return to provider”, a woman’s hands are next to the phone, and a card is between the phone and the table
November 30, 2025 at 9:11 AM
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OK, here is a 5-minute sketch, @tomski.com
User needs first Service design second Operating model third Technology fourth
November 29, 2025 at 1:27 PM
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The patterns that the UK Ministry of Justice and colleagues in other departments are currently looking into capture repeatable service segments.

It mirrors some of the thinking and exchanges we had at GDS almost a decade ago. I remember chats with @harrytrimble.bsky.social back in the days.
9 differently coloured boxes with 1 word each: First row: Record, unterstand, inform, request, apply Second row: Book, evaluate, decide, pay
November 28, 2025 at 10:11 AM
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What a great international #GovDesign call – once again!

After hearing about #servicePatterns from @jaskang.bsky.social and @nikolagoger.bsky.social first, we now listen to Martin Ford-Downes from the UK Ministry of Justice about their very concrete work on patterns across UK government.
Service patterns are a structured way of describing repeatable user tasks that can be combined to build or shape end-to-end services.
November 28, 2025 at 10:02 AM
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New #GovDesign job 🔔

@drvrheinland.bsky.social is looking for a UI /​ #UXdesigner in Speyer. The role is permanent and open until 15 December 2025.

Still open: another UX/UI role at @sprind-de.bsky.social and a #serviceDesign role at @digitalservice.bund.de

➡️ verwaltungsgestaltung.de#positionen
Partial screenshot of a website displaying open 3 design positions – a UX/UI design role at the German state pension service in Speyer, a service design opening at the Digital Service in Berlin, and a UX/UI design role for the EU digital identity wallet app remote
November 27, 2025 at 11:23 AM
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Love the passion of civil servants around the #ServiceStandard❣️

People keep posting and sending me pictures of the new poster in action.

More posters are out in the post shortly …
Various posters pinned to an office cupboard – the biggest is a dark blue Service Standard poster listing 13 points A bald man in a refurbished basement with street art on the wall, he is standing and holding a dark blue Service Standard poster listing 13 points. A box next to him contains more of the same posters, 2 people are sitting and look at him
November 26, 2025 at 8:49 AM
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6 months seems like an eternity – but then, in government, it’s nothing, of course.

I’ll see how significant the organisational pain is …

Consider me your customer in May anyway.

These classics have had their permanent place at @digitalservice.bund.de’s office for years, too.
3 framed posters standing in front of a big sofa. 1st poster says: Good services are verbs, bad services are nouns. 2nd poster says: Show the thing. 3rd poster says: It’s ok to – and then lists a long list of things that are ok in the work culture, including OK to say I don’t know, ask for more clarity, ask for help
November 25, 2025 at 7:24 PM
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Resharing this picture of @loudowne.bsky.social on stage at the SDN #serviceDesign Conference 2023 in Berlin.

I just shared it with a colleague when discussing what design is and what not.

So much of my work includes activities listed like:
A conversation
An email
Costing up delivery
Getting money
A person with light skin and blonde hair, wearing a t-shirt standing, on a stage with a massive pink slide projected behind them saying: “Service design is …“ in bold letters. In 3 columns, it lists activities: A conversation An email A new fund A coffee with someone A diagram A new structure Changing the name of something Renaming a business process Changing an API Stopping things from happening Starting new things A new stream of revenue Fixing a point of failure Giving permission for something Organising pay rises Clearer outcomes Defining the edges of a service Costing up delivery Applying for funding Hiring people Spending 6 months getting money Making friends Making enemies Building a community Rage-quitting Taking breaks Pillow plumping Sticker designing Powerpoint wrangling Tear mopping Morale building
November 25, 2025 at 11:37 AM
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🔔 Reminder

On Friday, 28th, we’ll discuss #servicePatterns in our 37th International #GovDesign community call.

We’ll hear from @jaskang.bsky.social from @tpximpact.com, Martin Ford-Downes & @nikolagoger.bsky.social from the UK Ministry of Justice.

The call starts at 9 am GMT—10 am CET—11 am EET
Jaskiran Kang, TPXimpact, Martin Ford-Downes & Nikola Goger, Ministry of Justice (UK): Service patterns
November 24, 2025 at 9:30 PM
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Nerding out in the middle of the night, I made an authoritative slide to illustrate how many government bodies approved the German #ServiceStandard, the related #DinSpec66336 and the standards regulation in the past 15 months.

It’s been quite an unpredictable ride.

But a successful one.
A timeline with 4 stops: June 2024 Federal Council approves OZG act amendment following agreement in mediation committee March 2025 DIN SPEC 66336, developed by a consortium of 42 organisations, is published June 2025 All federal states and the federal government unanimously agree to the standard regulation September 2025 Minister Wildberger signs the standard regulation, which comes into force on 1 October
November 23, 2025 at 11:34 PM
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I just used the online ID function as described in the letter: to purchase a phone SIM card and verify the identity online.

The phone carrier’s service used Deutsche Post’s #PostIdent service to read the ID card.

It took a few attempts to transfer the data because the NFC chip is sensitive.

4/X
Phone screenshot saying ‘POSTIDENT’: There are 3 methods available AutolD Verify your identity online fully automated with your smartphone & your identification document. (Available every day around the clock.) elD function Identify online with ID card, residence permit, or elD card for EU citizens and PIN. (Available every day around the clock.) Phone screenshot saying: ‘POSTIDENT’ — How to scan your identity card • Do not disrupt the contact between the ID and the smartphone. • If there are problems with the connection, please change the position of the ID. • Remove any protective cases. • If the problems continue, please restart the app. 2 buttons below: ‘OK’ and ‘Select a different method’
November 23, 2025 at 6:37 PM
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Our updated letter uses plain language and is more structured.

Bold subheadings ask ‘What can I do with the online ID?’ and ‘What can I use the online ID for?’.

We also tested more elaborate variants of the letter with users, but the Federal Press’ mass printing facility couldn’t handle them.

3/X
A pile of 3 or 4 official letters on top of each other, they contain scratch card areas for codes
November 23, 2025 at 6:37 PM
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In user research, we found that the original letter was not well understood.

It used technocratic language and mentioned a transport pin, an unlock number, and a locking pin.

People did not activate their ID for online use. They binned or filed that letter.

We redesigned it.

2/X
2 letters side by side with an arrow pointing from the left one to the right one; the letter on the left uses technocratic descriptions mentioning a transport pin, unlock number, locking pin and more; the letter on the right is more structured with subheadings in bold saying ‘What can I do with the online ID?’ and ‘What can I use the online ID for?’, showing 6 use cases from filing taxes to viewing pension contributions to getting a police check, opening a bank account and ordering a phone sim card
November 23, 2025 at 6:37 PM
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In Germany, you can use your physical ID with its NFC chip & a passcode to verify your identity online.

It’s still a little bumpy, but it generally works.

3 years ago—while building a new identity app for @bmi.bund.de—we redesigned the letter that gets sent 8 million times per year, because…

1/X
A man holding a smartphone up to his identity card sits at a table with an official letter and a laptop.
November 23, 2025 at 6:37 PM
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Now, I see 5 recurring profiles:
→ service design
→ UX/UI design
→ communication design
→ accessibility
→ systems design

User research is absent, indeed.

4/X
5 main profiles: accessibility, communication design, UX/UI design, service design, system design
November 20, 2025 at 10:40 AM
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The 23 openings I found were across 14 public sector organisations. The number was close to zero 5 years ago.

These openings were located throughout Germany, from Kiel to Freiburg and Osnabrück to Leipzig.

These were only the roles I found. It’s pretty likely that I missed various more.

3/X
14 public sector organisations hired user-centred design specialists: Bundeskriminalamt, CityLAB Berlin, Dataport, Deutsche Rentenversicherung Bund, dzb lesen, Digital@M, DigitalAgentur Brandenburg, DigitalService, Gematik, Governikus, IT-Niedersachsen, PD, Freiburg, SPRIND
November 20, 2025 at 10:40 AM