Sophie Drouet

a close up of a man 's face with his eyes closed Alt: a close up of a man 's face with his eyes closed and rubbing his face in a state of utter confusion. the gif is from the American show The office

As someone with (French) elderly parents who (at times) struggle with the internet, having to click through 4 different links not to have to download an app to apply for a UK tourist visa is diabolical 👿

My favorite detail from this article:

"Premium chatbots provided more confidently incorrect answers than their free counterparts."

If that’s not some kind of metaphor for life in 2025 I dunno what is

I recorded this podcast with @accessiblenumbers.bsky.social a little while ago. It covers some of the same ground as that talk of mine I'm always banging on about – the one about designing services for people on low incomes.

Oh there's going to be so many uses for this meme, isn't there

Meme of Beyoncé looking shocked at the Grammy's 2025, when she finally won album of the year

When they say there's no need for user research because "we know our users".

Question for people working in transformation and culture change:

In your experience, what are the typical signs that an organisation is not ready for change?

Listening to this on my way in to work

Fantastic resource for user-centred designers on understanding how trauma affects user access to services - and how to design better experiences

Bonus point for the excellent podcast overview with timestamps & transcript 👏

Black and white photo of a very big ram, behind it is a photoshopped girl of about 12 years of age who is tapping the ram on its back

The absolute unit has made a friend

Services Week is back for 2025 Services Week is an annual event hosted by the Government Digital and Data community, bringing together professionals from across the UK public sector.

#ServicesWeek to return for its seventh year ✨
Please share and save the date: 17 to 21 March 2025

This event series aims to grow service literacy and is open to all UK public servants. Take part if you can!

#ServiceDesign #GovDesign #LocalGov #LocalDigital

services.blog.gov.uk/2024/12/19/s...

These are excellent but the real question everyone's waiting to answer is- how will custard feature?

Jack's laws of content (1 of X):

Left unchecked organisations will produce more content than they can maintain

Would definitely be interested though may not be able to join every month. Knowing a few months in advance what the books will be would help with planning

What GDS has found from public sector accessibility monitoring Find out what our team found from the last 3 years of monitoring the accessibility of public sector websites and mobile apps.

Our report on 3 years of #accessibility monitoring is live! 16,000 barriers removed across the UK public sector, the most common are contrast, focus, keyboard and reflow. Chris Heathcote's blog and link to the Government Digital Service report: accessibility.blog.gov.uk/2024/12/17/w... 📜 #a11y

Don't get me wrong, love pasta. Top meal. But for Christmas? It just feels wrong.

Have only seen Muppet Christmas once and I enjoyed it. To be fair, I don't think I have classic films I rewatch around Christmas... Except maybe Love, Actually, which I know is objectively terrible 😅

(Re) watching The Holiday tonight and my observations:

1) The writing is horrendous

2) Jack Black and Kate Winslet have no chemistry whatsoever

3) Jude Law and Cameron Diaz are super cringe but kinda work

4) They have pasta on Christmas Eve?!?

5) I cannot fathom watching this every year 😬

Climate populism will be the next great conspiracy complex | Aeon Essays The most ardent deniers of anthropogenic climate change today will become the climate conspiracy theorists of tomorrow

This rings very true and I feel we are going to start seeing this more and more in 2025

aeon.co/essays/clima...

Service Design at Barnardo’s – Medium Sharing service design and service modelling work at Barnardo’s.

Intrigued to see how Barnardo's Innovation Lab evolves now that it's been split into two 👀

Last few Medium articles give an insight into how their team's been able to embed service and user-centred design in the org and what they're up to next

medium.com/barnardos-di...

It’s a successful #discovery when the conclusion is:

“There is no viable need to build XY.”

👎🏻 ✅ 👏🏻

But it takes a bit of greatness from senior stakeholders to accept that and not continue developing a thing that no longer makes sense.

It’s something we still need to normalise so much more.

I'm loving how clear & methodical this design research framework by @erikahall.bsky.social is.

Assumptions mapping is so useful early on but pressure to deliver often means not taking enough time to define research methods or how to analyse & integrate findings

www.muledesign.com/blog/design-...

🧼 🌿 People who can't stand coriander: has it ever tasted like soap?

Up until today, I would have never said so (rather it has an overpowering & unpleasant flavour to me) but I just used Fairy liquid and... my hands smelled like coriander?!

Is this what people mean? Coriander = OG fairy liquid

This could become a lucrative niche for AirBnB - "flats with interior decor that is pleasing to service designers"

I went for something a bit more subtle on day one 😄 (if you discount my pink bobble hat)

a penguin wearing a top hat and carrying a briefcase is standing in the snow . Alt: a penguin wearing a top hat and carrying a briefcase in the snow

Very much back to school vibes this morning as I prepare my backpack and figure out what to wear on my first day at Southwark Council 🤓

Barely anything... They didn't show up in the end, so that was time well spent 🙄

I am waiting for a courier to pick up my IT equipment and the time slot I've been given is the most absurd - 7 am to 6 pm 🤡

Oh and they also don't do tracking so I have no idea where they are or when they might get here.

Thank you thank you. It's seen so much use 🥲

Haha 😂 To be fair, I can't claim them all. Pretty sure one of the dancing pandas and the disco parrot were Darshan's

Thanks James, it was indeed! Emotional but got everything I wanted to wrap up done and feel nice and happy with how I've left things