Designing with Europe: Five ways we’re rethinking the design for policy practice at EU level

What happens when policymakers and designers come together to rethink how we shape the future? At the User First conference in Amsterdam and through ongoing conversations across Europe, we explored how designing at different governance levels can inform, challenge, and transform our collective European public design practice. Through the session we brought to the surface five key reflections on designing more responsive, flexible, and inclusive EU policies. This post shares insights from our journey, what we’ve learned on the day, what we’re testing in general, and what might come next, as we continue to explore what designing for, in, and with policy really looks like across Europe. 

In Amsterdam, we had the chance to meet brilliant public design practitioners, who are pushing boundaries and reshaping how institutions work. Together, we shared stories, debated challenges, and explored what it takes to embed design in the machinery of public administration. We ran a workshop to bring together some questions from the practice, using the occasion of having a diverse set of designers from across governance in the room to design with us and envision a ‘European’ design for policy. We have even taken the conversation further through a podcast, experimenting with how to share the realities of design for policy with wider audiences. 

Listen to Ottla and Yaprak via Spotify or via the website gebruikercentraal.nl  

The insights emerging from this exchange, both shared and divergent, have helped crystallise some recurring themes and practices that we believe are crucial when designing more responsive and future-fit EU policies.  

Here are five key reflections that have emerged from this collective learning journey: 

1. Reinventing country sheets: mapping knowledge through a design lens 

One of the persistent challenges we face is how to gather, structure, and make sense of knowledge from across Member States. Traditional "country fact sheets", providing specific information about individual countries on a specific topic (e.g. recycling rates, air pollution or nuclear energy), often fall short or are too static and top-down. What came up during the session was the idea of flipping the model to a more experimental, design-led approach to country overviews. These reinvented "sheets" go beyond data to include system maps, ethnographic insights, and inspiring practices emerging at the local level. By integrating bottom-up stories with broader policy trends, we’re creating a more textured, systems-aware picture of what's really happening across the EU. This new approach also helps synthesise and align disparate data workflows across institutions: bridging the technical with the experiential. 

2. Designer hunters: embedding local expertise from the start 

Another idea that emerged was about different ways to empower local actors, that a group called “Designer Hunters” from the very beginning of the process. These are the people who can diagnose issues at their own scale, mobilise local knowledge, and rapidly prototype interventions based on what already exists. This method could allow for quicker learning cycles, thus ensuring that the action plans that emerge are deeply rooted in the realities of Member States. We have even tested some of these formats of small-scale calls where local stakeholders are invited to articulate how they could frame and deliver this research in their local context. 

3. Heterogeneous archetypes: embracing diversity in patterns and processes 

In EU policy, there is often a pressure to define one-size-fits-all solutions. But our work and some of the reflections focused on how to shift this narrative to working with diversity and heterogenous approaches, rather than homogeneous. Instead of seeking consensus upfront, we focus on surfacing archetypes and patterns that can co-exist. During the session, participants mentioned methods such as the "2-4-8" model of possible pathways or using structured "time-out" to pause and reflect in dialogue. 

By recognising that implementation looks different depending on scale, timing, and cultural context, we are able to develop more adaptable, plural strategies. We also found that fiction and speculative design are powerful tools here, as they allow us to step away from current constraints and co-imagine what a shared European future might look like, with all its diversities and contradictions. 

4. Small-scale testing: actionable evidence in real time 

Another strong point raised was about ‘flexibility’ and how to place strong emphasis on testing ideas at a small scale, early and often. Whether it's prototyping services, building physical models (like homes), or simulating policy scenarios, this kind of rapid testing creates tangible evidence that can inform decision-making. These experiments allow to learn while doing, a core principle of any design-led policy approach. 

5. Live and evolving policies: keeping the work alive 

Lastly, we’ve been asking ourselves: How can policy outputs stay alive, relevant, and continuously evolving? Too often strategies are written and shelved. Or written perfectly behind closed doors until the moment they get out and need to be implemented. Instead, we’re exploring formats and tools that allow policies to evolve over time, whether it’s through modular toolkits, live documentation, or environments that encourage constant feedback. One group explored "writing residencies," where teams come together in focused settings to write, revise, and iterate on policy drafts. These are less about producing perfect outputs and more about cultivating spaces for experimentation, learning, and renewal. 

The reflections shared here represent a broader shift:  

• from static strategies to living policies;
• from top-down models to grounded, local perspectives;
• from uniformity to creative plurality. 

As this community of practice grows, so too does our understanding of what’s possible when we embed design in the heart of policymaking. We invite others to join us in experimenting, questioning, and co-creating. Because the future of EU design for policy will not be written behind closed doors, in an isolated office in Brussels, but prototyped, tested, and developed together, with those it is meant to serve. 

Read the first article in this Design for policy series: Design in, for, and with Europe