Latest news and ideas

In this blog, Emily Allinson, Head of Capability Development at Opencast, explores the impact of new technology on citizens, the changing nature of their experiences, and the implications for how they engage with government. It takes a forward-looking view, based on the assumption that current trends continue and citizens increasingly turn to AI first when accessing government services and information.

In this blog, Juliet Kampasi, Service Design Lead at Opencast, and Ishika Mukherjee, Lead User Researcher, explore why bringing policy, delivery and user needs closer together is essential for creating better public services. Drawing on their experience across government transformation programmes, they discuss how embedding user-centred design earlier in the policy process can help organisations reduce uncertainty, make more informed decisions and deliver services that better meet the needs of citizens and businesses.

Ahead of her SDinGov session, The Data and Analytics Ecosystem: The Hidden Layer of Service Transformation (24 September, 2pm), Dr Angela Orviz explores why service designers need to understand the data and analytics ecosystems that underpin public services and previews the themes that will be discussed during the talk.

Organisations have access to more insight than ever before. User research, analytics, operational data and performance reporting all provide valuable perspectives on how services are performing. Yet many teams still face a familiar challenge: deciding what to improve first.  Through our work supporting service transformation, we have seen that the issue is rarely a lack of evidence. More often, teams struggle to connect different sources of insight in a way that supports confident decision making and prioritisation.  By bringing together user needs, operational knowledge and quantitative data, organisations can develop a richer understanding of end-to-end journeys and make more informed decisions about where to focus their efforts. This article explores why connecting insight matters, what we have learned from doing it in practice and how it can help teams prioritise improvements that deliver meaningful value for users and organisations alike. 

AI assistants are becoming increasingly capable, but their real value comes from connecting securely with enterprise systems. Model Context Protocol (MCP) provides a standardised way for AI models to interact with tools, APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) and data sources, and MCP servers are the infrastructure that makes this possible. This blog explores what MCP servers are, why they matter for DevOps teams, and the operational considerations involved in deploying them securely, reliably and at scale.

AI is transforming the way content designers work, creating new opportunities to improve how content is researched, designed, managed and maintained. In this blog, Laurna Robertson explores how AI can support each stage of the content lifecycle, from discovery and planning through to content design and maintenance, while highlighting the importance of human judgement, accessibility and user focus.

Henry Rex, Opencast Government Relations Director, reflects on nearly a decade of attending the Modernising Criminal Justice conference, exploring what’s changed, what hasn't and what it means for organisations working to transform justice services. 

User-centred design (UCD) often gets taught as a clear, structured process: speak to users, validate decisions, iterate, deliver. In an ideal world, everything flows neatly. But in reality? It very rarely works like that.  Here, Opencast Senior Interaction Designer James Tabiner shares his perspective on what it means to practise UCD in the real world, especially in environments shaped by constraints like tight budgets, shifting deadlines, limited user access, or small teams.  His core message: the real skill isn’t just doing UCD well; it’s knowing what to do when you can’t.