GOV.AU is a “mental model” of government

Leisa Reichelt, Head of Service Design of Australia’s Digital Transformation Office, explains how the research for the GOV.AU prototype showed that people are struggling to interact with government – because they have no mental model of government and don’t understand how all the parts of government fit together.

She argues that people shouldn’t have to know how government works to interact with government and that is precisely the vision for GOV.AU: present content that has been collaboratively produced by different parts of government and designed around the needs of users – not the structures of government. In other words, help government act as a coherent whole.