The Digital Transformation Agency (DTA) has released a new policy that will standardise the design and delivery of digital services within all facets of government.

To come into effect from 1 January 2025, the new Digital Experience Policy is the result of research and industry consultation over the past year to develop a strategy that ensures government departments and agencies meet user expectations and needs, assess their performance to track improvements and adhere to four digital standards in a cohesive and consistent way.

The refreshed policy puts into place several recommendations from the myGov User Audit conducted in 2022 to 2023 and solidifies part of the Data and Digital Government Strategy’s 2030 outlook to “deliver simple, secure and connected public services for all people and businesses”.

“The Digital Experience Policy aims to elevate and humanise digital interactions, ensuring every touchpoint with government is seamless and meaningful for all people and businesses,” Chris Fechner, CEO of the DTA, said.

The four standards include:

• The Digital Inclusion Standard, ensures the people who need government’s services most aren’t left behind.
• The Digital Access Standard, promotes reuse to ensure services are easy to discover and seamless to access.
• The Digital Performance Standard, requires agencies to monitor, report and improve the quality of their digital services.
• The Digital Service Standard, guides digital teams to create and maintain digital services that are:
  • user-friendly
  • inclusive
  • adaptable; and
  • measurable.

The new policy comes as the Australian Government’s digital services includes over 600 active websites, according to the DTA, with a focus on increasing the cohesiveness and inclusivity of users’ digital government experiences.

“To develop both the policy and its family of standards, the DTA drew upon extensive research into best practices, design principles, accessibility and inclusion strategies, and measurement approaches. Co-design activities included user research, workshops with the Australian Public Service, industry and peak bodies, and a measurement pilot,” a statement from the agency said.