Life events. Why Government needs to rethink web content now

Many years ago, I participated in a cross-agency project to create a framework for organising government website content based on life events. It was an exciting time but sadly ended when there was a change of Government.

Fast track 6 years or so, and the problem we were once trying to solve is now more important than ever.

For years, government websites have been designed around structure: agency names, departments, programmes, policy areas. All carefully organised. All dependent on users clicking through the "right" path to find what they need.

But here's the problem: most people don't think in policy terms or department names. They think in life events. Starting a business. Renting a flat. Becoming a parent. Losing a job.

And with AI becoming the go-to for answers, this mismatch is becoming a problem. Because AI doesn't care about your site structure, it cares about the question being asked. And increasingly, that question will be answered before anyone even gets to your website.

The age of predictive information

AI tools are already stitching together answers from multiple websites instantly.

If someone asks, "How do I change my name after marriage in New Zealand?", they won't be taken to your homepage and expected to click through 5 levels of menus.

AI will try to serve them:

• The form to change a name

• The ID documents they'll need

• Info on updating their drivers licence and passport

• Maybe even links to Inland Revenue or the Electoral Commission

All at once. All without a traditional site journey. This is a wake-up call.

The future of government content is modular, not navigational

It's time to move from:

• Organisational logic to user logic

• Pages built around internal structure to blocks built around real needs

• Navigation trees to life event pathways

Because if your content is still buried under menus or written in agency-first language, AI won't surface it. And people won't get the support they need, at the moment they need it most.

Life event design isn't new. But now, it's urgent

The idea of designing around life events has been floated in digital government circles for years, attempted, stopped. But AI has made it a now problem, not a next problem.

The future of public service online isn't about digital "visits." It's about digital moments of help. And those moments increasingly won't happen on your site.

Main message?

Government content that's designed around agency structure is becoming invisible. In an AI-powered web, content needs to serve moments, not menus.

If your content were pulled out of your site and show in isolation, would it still make sense to the person asking for help?