In an article in UX (user experience) Magazine last month Cyd Harrell discussed the way that citizens interacting with their governments differs from that of customers interacting with service providers.  But that doesn’t mean that the user experience field doesn’t have a lot to offer when it comes to supporting that interaction.  Harrell asks:

Imagine an interface point with the government (at any level—city, state, federal) that is confidence-building, pleasant, and maybe even delightful. What would the right design values be to achieve that? How would we come up with personas to represent all the use cases? Would that exercise even make sense? What techniques could we employ to inspire change in highly complex, change-resistant environments? Above all, what should a public experience be and how can we define best practices for government agencies that aren’t likely to hire a UX practitioner anytime soon?

You can read his response to some of these questions here.