Coda: summary of suggestions

In my series on Service Design and Language, I’ve tried to offer a few practical suggestions for how we might improve the delivery of services in the languages of Welsh and English. Some of these suggestions are, of course, easier than others.

A rough summary would look a bit like this:

1. Stuff that will cost a reasonable but not ridiculous amount of money
   • Where the cost/benefit case shows a clear benefit, consider the value of developing open source software up front and releasing it for the use of all rather than allowing many public sector organisations to pay licence fees on commercially provided software [blog #8];
   • Create a business case for creating a Welsh language version of the Digital Marketplace [blog #9];

2. Stuff that will cost a little bit of money 
   • Research on a) how users search for content in the language of Welsh online and b) how to make Welsh language content discoverable online [blog #1];
   • Research on flexibility around language switching functionality [blog #2];
   • Create some Welsh language training material on content design, encourage a cross-Wales network of content design in the languages of both English and Welsh [blog #5];
   • Develop an approach to service design (and user research and content design in particular) that incorporates services working in the languages of Welsh and English, that is tested and then incorporated into the relevant standards [blog #6]; 
   • Create a Welsh language version of the GDS design pattern library [blog #5];
   • Create a Welsh language glossary of terms shared across the public sector, and accessible to other sectors [blog #5];

3. Stuff that will take some organising
   • Create a cross-public sector group of digital people working with Welsh language content [blog #7];
   • Create a blog to showcase examples of multi-lingual digital public service design [blog #7];
   • Create a cross-Wales list of people willing to be involved in user testing Welsh language services (whether by email, or being invited to an online or physical session) [blog #6];

4. Stuff that won’t cost anything
   • Start using qualitative and quantitative metrics in conjunction, and basing language choices on channel shift metrics not language speaker statistics [blog #3].
   • Take a positive approach to language, and note how much it can help all users [blog #4]