Paul Clarke had been on a journey. Well two, actually.

The first was to get a bit of routine business done with government, updating the photograph on his driving licence. He has written a blow by blow account of how that didn’t work the way it should have done. Follow the link and read it now.

The second was to give not only that account, but a powerful message which should be heard and acted on by designers of public services – designers of any services – anywhere and everywhere. It is that it is the journey which matters, the whole package  which adds up to the complete experience of getting done what needs to be done. We need better web design. We need better form design. We need contact centres which can be human and effective. But we don’t need any of those things in isolation. They add up to a service, and it is the service we need to get right.