Coherent digital user journeys will make it easier to be a citizen in Denmark

08-01-2019

It should be easier for citizens to deal with the public sector. In ten significant events that many people will experience during their lifetime, the relevant digital solutions are to be better connected and interoperable. Citizens will gain a better overview of what to do and when.

Coherent digital user journeys will give structure

As part of the Danish government's Coherency Reform in the Public Sector, the Agency for Digitisation will be leading the development of coherent digital user journeys. Coherent user journeys will provide citizens with a better overview of the tasks they need to remember in the given life event, when they need to do them, and where help is available.

In 2021, digital guides will have been developed to support coherent digital user journeys in the ten most important life events. The digital guides will serve as a customised check-list that provides an overview and guides the citizen to read and do what is relevant for their specific situation.

A lot to do when a family member dies

One example is when a family member dies. When dealing with the grief of having lost a spouse or a close relative, there are also a number of tasks to be done at different authorities and at different times.

Citizens need to find information about the funeral, administration of the estate, estate tax, any funeral benefits and survivor benefits and changes in their own conditions such as housing benefits or pension. Furthermore, a funeral director, the bank and the insurance company need to be contacted. A digital guide will make it easier for citizens to cope with the practical tasks in a difficult situation.

Digital guides for ten important life events

Becoming a digital citizen (15-year-olds)

66 835 15-year-olds in 2017.

Starting an education programme

89 758 applicants for higher education in 2018.

Moving

896 531 moves in 2017.

New parent

61 397 births in 2017.

Getting divorced

15 169 divorces in 2017.

Getting a new job

700 000-800 000 job openings a year.

Losing a job                                           

  14 844 notified redundancies in 201.

Moving abroad

  21 095 Danish nationals moved in 2017.

Losing a family member

  53 261 deaths in 2017.

Retiring

  About 60 000 new retirement pensioners a year.

Less silo mentality, more focus on citizens

The long-term aim is that citizens will experience seamless digital services, where self-service solutions and other digital services are coordinated across authorities, services are customised to the individual citizen's situation, and data is submitted only once:

"The authorities have come a long way in the development of digital self-services. Separately, the digital self-service solutions function adequately, and borger.dk offers a single point of access to the solutions. However, across the individual solutions, we can improve the overall user experience. We must increasingly develop our solutions based on what citizens experience when they use the solutions. Initially, the digital guides will help citizens to feel confident that they have done the right thing at the right time."

Rikke Hougaard Zeberg, Director General of the Agency for Digitisation.

An inclusive and involving process

Work on developing coherent user journeys will be carried out up to 2021 together with municipalities, regions, and other relevant authorities. Moreover, citizens, businesses, employees, and other parties important for understanding and improving the digital services in the specific situations will be extensively involved.

This new approach to work on digital services will not only benefit citizens. In the business area, ten user journeys for businesses will improve coherency by the end of 2020. These user journeys will be hiring new employees or dealing with sickness in a one-man business.