Context
The Social Security and Welfare Administration of the Republic of Italy (Istituto Nazionale Previdenza Sociale – INPS), is a cornerstone of the national welfare system, serving over 45 million citizens and businesses throughout all stages of life. Despite its central role and long-standing institutional history, INPS has traditionally been perceived as a complex and difficult organisation to navigate for users, due to fragmented digital services and technical, legal language.
Within a political and institutional context strongly oriented towards digital transformation, simplification, and inclusion at both national and European level, INPS recognised the urgency of rethinking how public services are designed and delivered. The challenge was not limited to digitalising existing services but concerned the need to ensure equitable access to rights, clarity of information, and user autonomy at scale.
Against this backdrop, the project was launched to address structural barriers to service accessibility and comprehension, harmonising more than 450 digital services into a coherent ecosystem. The initiative supports the broader modernisation of public administration by promoting a shift from a service-centred model to a citizen-centred approach, where digital innovation becomes a tool for inclusion, trust, and empowerment.
Objectives
The project’s primary objective is to reduce the fragmentation and complexity of INPS’s digital services by placing people’s needs at the centre of service design. Given the large number of services provided and the diversity of users, the initiative aims to ensure that services, content, and interactions are coherent, accessible, and understandable for all, regardless of background or level of digital literacy.
A key objective is the establishment of a uniform and scalable framework for service design. INPS introduced a shared design system as a foundational solution to guarantee consistent user experiences across digital services and channels, embedding accessibility and usability from the outset according to a design-for-all approach.
Another core objective is the simplification of institutional language to improve content clarity and reduce cognitive effort, enabling users to access information and services more autonomously. This is supported by measurable indicators such as readability metrics, a customer satisfaction score, and a customer effort score.
Implementation
The implementation is supported by a structured organisational and governance model that brings together INPS’s internal capabilities with the expertise of specialised external consultants. Overall management is entrusted to a dedicated internal team responsible for strategic direction, activity coordination, and validation of the solutions developed, ensuring alignment with the Institute’s context and operational needs.
A central pillar of the model is the Experience Authority function, which provides continuous oversight throughout the entire process and ensures the consistent application of rules and guidelines. This contribution strengthens the quality and coherence of the outputs delivered across the various project streams.
The project is also characterised by strong stakeholder engagement: internal teams, suppliers, and users participate actively through structured touchpoints and continuous validation activities. These interactions make it possible to analyse feedback, challenge proposed solutions, and integrate improvements into subsequent work cycles, supporting a collaborative approach focused on improvement.
The dissemination of the method is reinforced through the inps.design platform, which provides access to materials and guidelines, as well as through internal training initiatives and periodic meetings with project teams. This enables the model to be progressively adopted throughout the organisation, enhancing both the effectiveness and the long‑term sustainability of the initiative.