Government Services Website Design
A public sector website is used by people who have no alternative. They cannot go elsewhere if it is confusing, which makes clarity and accessibility obligations rather than preferences. Most visits are one task — find a form, check eligibility, pay something, report something — and the site should be organised around those tasks rather than around departments.
Built for government departments, councils, agencies and public bodies. Describe your business in a sentence and a complete site is written and designed for you — then you edit every word of it.
Build my website free →What a government services website needs
Every one of these is included from the first draft. Nothing here is decoration — each answers a question your visitors are already asking.
Organised by task, not department
Citizens do not know your structure. They know what they are trying to do.
Accessibility as a baseline
Screen readers, contrast, keyboard navigation, plain language. It is a legal obligation and a service requirement.
Forms and how to submit them
What is needed, how long it takes and what happens next. Uncertainty generates enormous call volume.
Eligibility, stated clearly
Who qualifies and who does not. It prevents wasted applications and wasted staff time.
Real contact routes
Phone, in person and online, with hours. Some citizens cannot use digital channels at all.
Plain language throughout
No jargon, no acronyms. Anything the reader has to decode is a failure of the service.
Three mistakes that cost government services websites customers
These come up again and again in this trade, and all three are avoidable.
- Organising by internal department, which assumes knowledge citizens do not have.
- Failing accessibility requirements, which is both unlawful and excludes the people most reliant on the service.
- PDF-only forms that cannot be completed on a phone.
- Acronyms and internal terminology in public-facing content.
- No indication of processing times, which generates avoidable calls.
- No non-digital contact route for citizens who cannot use one.
- Guidance that is out of date after a rule change, which causes real harm.
- No indication of what to do if something goes wrong, when a complaints or appeals route is exactly what a failed application needs.
Six government services designs to start from
Every industry ships with six distinct designs. Pick one as a starting point — the layout, colours, wording and images are all yours to change afterwards.
How you get your government services website
Describe the business
One or two sentences about your government services is enough. No brief, no questionnaire.
Get a complete first draft
Pages, sections, images and written copy — not an empty template waiting for you to fill it in.
Edit anything, then publish
Change any word, section or colour yourself. Publish to a free address or connect your own domain.
Government Services website questions
How should a public site be organised?
By the task the citizen is trying to complete. Departmental structure is internal knowledge and assuming it is a barrier to service.
How important is accessibility?
It is a legal obligation in most jurisdictions and a practical one everywhere, because the people most reliant on public services are most affected by failures.
Should forms be PDFs?
Not as the only option. PDFs are difficult on a phone and exclude many users; online forms serve far more people.
Why publish processing times?
Because uncertainty generates call volume. Telling people how long something takes reduces both anxiety and cost.
Is plain language really necessary?
Yes. Jargon in public-facing content is a service failure, since the reader has no alternative provider to turn to.
Do we still need phone contact?
Yes. A significant proportion of citizens cannot or will not use digital channels, and removing the alternative excludes them.
How quickly must guidance be updated?
Immediately after a rule change. Out-of-date public guidance causes real harm rather than mere inconvenience.
What if an application is refused?
Publish the appeals or complaints route plainly. A citizen whose application failed has nowhere else to turn and needs the next step spelled out.
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