Meers, Jed orcid.org/0000-0001-7993-3062, Halliday, Simon and Tomlinson, Joe (2024) An ‘interface first’ bureaucracy:Interface design, Universal Credit and the digital welfare state. Social Policy & Administration. ISSN 1467-9515
Abstract
The front-line of the welfare state is increasingly not a letter, phone call or face-to-face visit, but an online user-interface. This ‘interface first’ bureaucracy is a fundamental reshaping of social security administration, but the design and operation of these interfaces is poorly understood. Drawing on interview data from senior civil servants, welfare benefits advisors and claimants receiving the UK’s flagship Universal Credit working-age benefit, this paper is a detailed analysis of the role played by interfaces in the modern welfare state. Providing examples from across the Universal Credit system, it sets out a five-fold typology of user-interface design elements in the social security context: (i) structuring data input, (ii) interaction architecture, (iii) operative controls, (iv) prompting and priming, and (v) integrations. The paper concludes by considering the implications of an ‘interface first’ welfare bureaucracy for future research.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2024 The Author(s). |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of York |
Academic Units: | The University of York > Faculty of Social Sciences (York) > The York Law School |
Depositing User: | Pure (York) |
Date Deposited: | 12 Jun 2024 08:23 |
Last Modified: | 22 Feb 2025 00:08 |
Published Version: | https://doi.org/10.1111/spol.13053 |
Status: | Published |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1111/spol.13053 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:213416 |
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Description: Soc Policy Adm - 2024 - Meers - An interface first bureaucracy Interface design universal credit and the digital
Licence: CC-BY 2.5