Putting Users First: How the GLA is embedding User-Centred Design

The Greater London Authority’s newly formed User Centred Design team has ambitious plans to embed a citizen-first mindset into how services are shaped across the capital.

At the forefront of this transformation is Selina Holliday, Service Owner for Talk London, the GLA’s civic engagement platform - and one of the 80+ public sector co-hosts participating in this year’s Government Transformation Summit.

Speaking ahead of the event, Holliday outlined how her team is laying the foundations for long-term change.

“My priorities are setting up the processes and ways of working that will allow the team to collaborate effectively, establish best practice and start embedding a user centric approach to designing and improving services at the GLA.”

A key focus for Holliday is making better use of feedback loops, and ensuring that citizen data isn't just collected - but turned into actionable insight.

“I’m looking forward to sharing how we work to integrate data and user feedback loops within our service, so that we make the data visible, useful and used, and put and keep users at the heart of how we run the service.”

Holliday's work on Talk London aims to bring Londoners’ voices directly into policymaking - using surveys, discussions and data insights to inform decision-making at City Hall. But she’s also clear that data alone isn’t enough.

“Our Director of Digital at the GLA, Vicky Ridley-Pearson, likes to talk about the five fingers of the hand approach — you can’t just think about the data. You have to think about the people using it, their processes, the technology they have access to, and the culture of the organisation. Without that, you end up with very useful data that still doesn’t get used.”

Questions for the Community

As well as sharing her team’s journey, Holliday is looking forward to learning from others.

“I’d like to understand how others integrate data and user insights into their design processes, to make sure they are not just using the data well, but making services inclusive, accessible, useful and used. I’d also love to hear about how others set up their teams to work effectively and collaborate.”

Meet Selina and join the conversation
Selina Holliday is one of 80+ co-hosts at Government Transformation Summit, and she'll be co-hosting on our Citizen Services & Digital Transformation day (24 June).  Join her — and hundreds of public sector digital, data and transformation leaders -  expert-led roundtables, cross-government collaboration and networking.

👉 Register your free place now (public sector only):