15 principles of Good Service Design

10. Have no dead ends

A service should direct all users to a clear outcome, regardless of whether the user is eligible or suitable to use the service. No user should be left behind or stranded within a service without knowing how to continue

What this means in practice

There is no point in your service where a user might be left stranded with no way to continue, or no information on what to do next

You’ve achieved good when

Your user is able to stray off the desired path of your service at and is able to return without being stranded. At no point will they find themselves in a situation where they are unable to continue without being given a way to resolve their issue

How to do it

There are six main ways that you can mitigate dead ends in your service:

  1. Provide onward routes for people who aren’t eligible to use your service

  2. Evenly distribute the complexity of your service

    Make sure your service doesn’t get unduly complex as you stray further from the beaten track.

  3. Ensure your service is inclusive

    Make sure you understand what you’re presuming your users are able to do, and make sure an inability to do one or more of these things isn’t a blocker to users being able to complete their goal

  4. Minimise the number of ‘requirements’ you ask of users

    Try to keep the number to things that are absolutely required of users to a minimum to avoid them getting stuck if they can’t do them or don’t have access to that one thing

  5. Build affordances

    Treat each new technology as a progressive enhancement on the last, meaning that, when services fail, you can rely on the technology that came before it

  6. Let your service degrade gracefully

Make sure that there are alternative routes for those who can’t do something or don’t have access to something

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