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Citizen services for the smartphone age

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How integrating mobile-based delivery can transform eGovernment services

Public sector organizations worldwide face growing pressure to provide citizens with the intuitive user experience they receive from the private sector. That means applying human-centered design to create digital citizen services that meet users’ needs today. And it means working to deliver a life events approach – services organized around important events in citizens’ lives, rather than around government departments – tomorrow.

But achieving this vision also means meeting citizens where they are – on their mobiles, through single-purpose apps and multi-purpose apps, including super-apps.

By 2030, 91% of the European population will be mobile internet users. Yet currently, citizens in the European Union can complete just 62% of services on mobile devices, compared with 84% on laptops or desktops.

eGovernment Benchmark

Our new point of view looks at how governments can use emerging technologies and sophisticated mobile apps to transform their interactions with citizens. That’s as well as delivering more inclusive, efficient digital public services and vastly improving the user experience.

Super-apps: the next stage in the evolution of digital citizenship in the public sector

In the EU, governments provide 93% of their services on responsive websites designed for desktop use. Along with functional limitations, these could exclude citizens who cannot afford a computer as well as a mobile phone.

Native apps, by contrast, are designed to work on a specific device, such as an Apple or Android phone. So, they are faster and more intuitive than responsive websites. They range from single-purpose apps designed to fulfill a specific function to multi-purpose apps that allow users to carry out several tasks.

Multi-purpose super-apps are the next stage in the evolution of digital citizenship in the public sector. These “one-stop-shop” solutions combine mini apps with core features to offer multiple services all in one place – delivering an intuitive, inclusive experience for the user.

Government super-apps like Dubai Now and LifeSG put popular citizen services in one place, organized around life events. And by combining 100+ interconnected citizen services, the Diia super-app in Ukraine allows citizens to do everything from registering births and marriages to submitting tax returns and renewing passports.

The future of eGovernment is mobile

Five benefits of investing in mobile-based delivery

By offering a more direct and task-oriented experience, mobile apps make it quicker and easier for citizens to initiate, submit and check on the progress of a request. They also make digital citizen services more inclusive for people who cannot afford more than one device.

Super-apps present complex information from multiple sources in a simple and intuitive way. This requires governments to redesign how they organize citizen services (for example, grouping them around important life events) and streamline internal processes.

Mobile apps already offer a more immediate way for governments and citizens to communicate. Tapping into the full power of AI through mobile service delivery allows governments to take customer service to the next level.

Interacting with digital government services often involves sharing documents and certificates, which can be inconvenient and inefficient. Mobile-based delivery makes it simple by allowing users to upload and share documents securely to a digital wallet.

Today’s digital citizen expects to have a great user experience when they use eGovernment services, whatever the channel. Super-apps can drive public-private collaboration by bringing multiple public and private sector services into one place.

Building the foundations for the future of citizen services: super-apps

Our point of view also shares what governments must do to create digital citizen services that people want to use. This includes getting the basics right, applying human-centered design and making sure citizens can share data securely. It also includes using AI and GenAI to give both citizens and government employees a more personalized and efficient experience.

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Want to know more?

Citizen services: Human-centered by design

Citizen services for life: Personalizing eGovernment through a life events approach

Meet our experts

Sandeep Kumar

Head of Portfolio & Enterprise Transformation
When we develop citizen services, we apply what we’ve learnt from over 10 years of delivering human-centered digital services for governments globally. In doing so, we can take clients a step closer to their North Star: a life-event framework that truly puts citizens at the center.

Nia Roberts

Senior Manager, Digital Factories – Business Technology – Capgemini Invent UK
“Putting citizens at the heart of public services needs to be a top priority for governments in order to ensure that citizens’ needs are being met. Our tried and tested life-event framework empowers governments globally to deliver human-centric services that are inclusive and accessible to anyone who needs to use them, while providing value for public money.”

Dave Ord

Senior Director, Digital Factory, Capgemini Invent
“I am excited by the interesting work we’re doing in the public sector and financial services to transform the digital experiences our clients provide to citizens, both in the UK and further afield. Evolution of AI and digital technologies, more mature strategies and closer partnerships across and between sectors are coming together to help us ensure digitization leads to more inclusive and citizen-centric client services, as well as better value for taxpayers and shareholders.”

Elisa Vlaanderen

Senior Service Designer
“In our work as service designers we focus on (re)designing public services from a citizen perspective to meet user needs and increase citizen-centricity. We guide government departments through large transformations in their change to become more citizen-oriented. We champion accessibility and inclusivity by applying human-centered design and guide governments in using this approach in their digital service delivery strategies – for example, when designing super-apps.”

Joanna Jaoudie

Senior UX Designer, Capgemini Invent
“You can have the best idea or an illuminating innovation, but if you want your ideas to flourish, they must be grounded in real user needs. Good user-centered design is not glamorous. It doesn’t pack in all the bells and whistles. It isn’t pretentious or loud and it doesn’t have to boast the most recent technology to remain relevant either. Its staying power comes from the problems it solves, quietly and effortlessly demonstrating the value it adds to people’s lives.”