Guideline Bank – Designing and Testing a Knowledge System for Advisors

Overview

A large Finnish government agency that provides digital services to citizens and other authorities needed a new internal guideline bank: a centralised knowledge system that would help its customer-service advisors access accurate information quickly and consistently.

I worked as a Service and UX Designer, helping to design the system's structure, prototype and usability testing to ensure that it truly served its users.

Challenge

The advisors work across multiple service channels, assisting citizens with complex legal and administrative questions. Their internal knowledge sources were scattered and inconsistent, leading to uncertainty, duplicated effort and inconsistent answers to citizens.

The challenge was to design a single source of truth that would:

• Make information findable and reliable.

• Support advisors' daily workflows.

• Create trust in both directions: between employees and the citizens they serve.

This required balancing information architecture, content usability and organisational adoption.

Approach

Research & Information Mapping – Conducted contextual interviews and observations with advisors to understand how they search for and use information during live service situations.

Co-Design & Structure Development – Worked with client teams to define a clear content hierarchy, tagging model and principles for tone and consistency.

Prototyping & Iteration – Developed wireframes and clickable prototypes to visualise navigation and structure, with a focus on plain language and clarity.

Usability Testing – Tested prototypes with advisors from several service units and iterated based on insights into search behaviour and terminology.

Outcome

• A clear, unified knowledge structure that made it easier for advisors to find reliable information.

• A prototype and design framework that guided the system's final build.

• More consistent information across the agency's customer service.

Impact & Reflection

This project reminded me that great service design often means helping people feel confident in what they already know, by giving them tools that make knowledge accessible and trustworthy.

It strengthened my skills in information design, usability testing and organisational communication, and reaffirmed my belief that clarity is one of the most powerful outcomes design can deliver.