Understanding ‘public design’ in government

Academics associated with Fieldstudio Design contributed to the UK Government’s Public Design Evidence Review published today.

First, engaged in late 2023, a small team worked collaboratively and across disciplines to do a rapid review of academic and grey literature to answer a set of questions about design in government.

Then, engaged in summer 2024, a small team worked together to review evidence commissioned and collated by the Civil Service, summarised in an Academic Commentary report. This traces the recent history of design in the UK Government, the relationships between public design and government, building on the four authors’ previous research in design, policy studies and innovation studies.

For the first time, this report offers a working definition of public design and articulates how design relates to the policy cycle, rooted in academic studies and drawing on the breadth of work taking place across central and local government in the UK.

The research team were: Lucy Kimbell, Catherine Durose, Rainer Kattel and Liz Richardson with doctoral candiates Iacopo Gronchi and Charlie Mealings for the literature reviews, and Lucy, Catherine, Rainer and Liz for the Academic Commentary.

Both the literature reviews and the Academic Commentary report are published today on the UK Civil Service’s website, gov.uk and launched at an event hosted by University of the Arts London.