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In an elaborate interview, Fredrik Scheide, special strategic advisor at the Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration (Nav), shares his view on international government service design. A deep dive into best practices from Norway, law-making and legislation, clear language and accessibility, whistling for lost canaries, ziplines and the necessity to stop building bridges together… but to also build bridges together?!

During the User Needs First International Conference, we sat down with leading experts and practitioners to explore how governments can truly put user needs first. The result? 4 podcast episodes packed with honest, practical, and sometimes provocative conversations about human-centered design in policy, digital services, and cross-border collaboration.

Did you miss the keynotes at the User Needs First International Conference 2025? Or just want to hear them again? You’re in luck! We’ve published the audio recordings of 4 standout talks from the event in Amsterdam, held on April 10 and 11, 2025. The conference brought together digital government experts from all over the world, sharing real stories and practical strategies for creating public services that truly work for people.

Following the User Needs First International Conference 2025, the global conversation on user-centered design in government continues. On May 23, User Needs First (Gebruiker Centraal) and the International Design and Government Community hosted a special post-conference webinar, and now you can watch the 3 presentations online.

What happens when governments around the world come together to put people before process? At the User Needs First International Conference 2025, we found out.

At the User Needs First International Conference 2025, Stephanie Kaiser, Chief Product Officer at Digital Service, gave an honest, funny, and hopeful keynote about what it really takes to put user needs at the heart of government in Germany. The short version? It’s hard. The long version? Keep reading.

What does a truly inclusive digital government look like? That was the central question driving one of the breakout sessions at the User Needs First International Conference 2025.

An ISO standard is an international standard that has been agreed on by international experts. In 2023, the Plain Language standard was published: Part 1: Governing principles and guidelines. As a former board member of the International Plain Language Federation, Christopher Balmford was one of the initiators of this standard.  

At the User Needs First International Conference, digital government pioneer Richard Pope challenged the crowd to reimagine the foundations of user-centered design in public services.

At the User Needs First International Conference 2025 in Amsterdam, the panel discussion ‘Cooperation across Government: How to Escape the Silos?’ brought together diverse voices and powerful personal stories to explore one of the public sector’s most pressing challenges: breaking through organizational silos.