Join Community User­CentriCities (UCC)!

UserCentriCities is an informal and international network of professionals working on user-centric government services across the globe, facilitated by User Needs First. Members discuss a variety of topics and challenges, all centered around user-centricity and optimal service design. Together, we can inspire and help each other improve government services. Join the network and get in touch with government professionals all over the world.

Bringing together best practices in user-centric government services

The goals of the community are:

• Different legislationial contexts per country offer unique perspectives on similar service design challenges. In addition, members can discuss overarching legislation or guidelines, such as EU legislation or accessibility guidelines, which is applicable to multiple countries, and learn from each other.
• Learning from international peers in government bodies (from national governments to local municipalities) by exchanging knowledge, insights, results, experiences and challenges on themes such as: proactive services, UX design, design thinking and customer journey methodology, plain language, accessibility, and user testing.
• Inspiring each other, ensuring that user-centric government services do not just remain an abstract vision, but become a key focus in organizations and tangible for its users.

About the members

This community is for professionals working on user-centric services and design within government organizations, like UX designers, researchers or service designers. The topics are also relevant for project managers, digital strategists, and policy makers.

You must work for a government body. This community is not for commercial parties (consultancy agencies, suppliers of service technology). As we are based in the Netherlands, we follow Central European Time (CET) for our activities. A lot of our members are also based in Europe. Originally, the community had a European focus, as it was established as part of a European Horizon2020 project. However, we strongly believe we can develop even more user-centric government services by expanding our efforts globally.

History of the UCC community

Community UserCentriCities was a Horizon2020 project that started in December 2020. Led by the Lisbon Council in partnership with Eurocities and VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, it brought together 26 European municipalities and regions; the founding partners – Espoo, Milan, Murcia, Rotterdam, Tallinn and Emilia Romagna – and participating cities and regions: Arezzo, Barcelona, Catalonia Region, Brussels Capital Region, Ghent, Glasgow, Gothenburg, Helsinki, Kronoberg Region, Kyiv, Lisbon, Ljubljana, Madrid, Mataró, Odesa de Montserrat, Paris, Porto, Riga, Terrassa and Utrecht. 

In May 2023, the Horizon project ended and the UserCentriCities network became part of User Needs First.

What to expect from the community

Community UserCentriCities is an environment for professionals to come in contact with peers in other countries.

Regular online UCC cafés

The community meets regularly in the morning from 10:00 to 11:00h (CET) in so-called online UCC cafés. In these cafés a member can give a presentation on their work or a specific theme to inspire the community. It’s also possible that a request for help from a member is submitted to the group, which the group then answers. We use Microsoft Teams for these meetings.

As a member you will get automatic invites to the UCC cafés, and specific attention from our community manager to help with any challenges you have or seeking connections that may help you in your work.

LinkedIn-group UCC; join up and connect to other members

Be sure to follow the User Needs First page on LinkedIn and join the Community UserCentriCities LinkedIn-group.

Interviews with members

We regularly publish interviews with members about their work and organization to inspire the community. If you’d like to share your story, let us know! We would love to conduct an interview with you.

Sign up for UCC

You can sign up for the community via the form below. Be sure to give details about the challenges you face and the knowledge you bring to the group. With this information, we can make your membership more worthwhile.

Contributions to the community (like presentations or sharing your experience in the community events) are voluntary, and membership is free. You can always cancel your membership by sending an e-mail to userneedsfirst@gebruikercentraal.nl. If you want to join up again later, you can always subscribe again.

The community is continuously growing. With more professionals joining, we can further develop knowledge about inclusive, accessible and understandable government (digital) services. Join us in our mission and sign up via the form below!