No-stop shop: Austria’s UX lessons on designing proactive government services

This story is part of GovInsider's Digital Government initiative, which aims to feature stories from digital government agencies around the world. Click here to view our interactive map.    

When a child is born in Austria, the hospital automatically informs the registry office, and the child's data is centrally consolidated by the Federal Ministry of the Interior.  

The data flows seamlessly to the Federal Ministry of Finance and then to local tax offices, enabling the state allowance to be automatically processed and disbursed to the family. 

This demonstrates how Austria has moved beyond a one-stop shop to embracing a no-stop shop model, where the government proactively delivers services with zero citizen action. 

According to the government’s Chief Digital Officer Wolfgang Ebner, the system also allows family allowance payments to continue after the child’s graduation. 

This ability to do so long-term is powered by the individual’s ongoing biometric confirmation and automated data exchange with institutions like universities, he explains.  

While a robust digital public infrastructure (DPI), including digital ID and data exchange, is vital, Ebner stresses that this technological capability must be paired with embedding service design within institutional collaboration. 

“Austria’s success was no coincidence. It emerged from structured, inter-ministerial cooperation involving legal experts, policy officers, service designers, and technologists. 

“By fostering a user-centred mindset within administrative modernisation, Austria ensured that policy goals and citizen experience developed in sync,” says Ebner to GovInsider. 

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DPI enables data-driven cooperation 

“True digital transformation cannot be achieved in isolation,” Ebner says.  

To transition the government from merely digitising existing paper processes to embracing service automation, Ebner emphasises that federal systems like Austria must ensure coordinated responsibility across the federal government, states, cities, and municipalities. 

This alignment is set out in the Austrian e-government strategy, which is a roadmap for establishing close collaboration among all levels of government, citizens and businesses, while defining the underlying digital architecture that connects these diverse stakeholders. 

The strategy is supported by the Digital Austria Act which lays out 36 principles and 117 specific measures to modernise public administration and strengthen the country’s digital ecosystem, he explains. 

According to Ebner, the technical backbone supporting this inter-ministry coordination is the Digital Austria Data Exchange (dadeX), which connects more than 30 registers and allows data to be reused securely and efficiently. 

Citing the example of grants, he shares that citizens do not need to resubmit their income documents and can automatically provide proof of income by simply granting permission for relevant government databases to access their data. 

“By 2026, the system is expected to save businesses and citizens over 150 million euros (S$226.2 million) each year, which serves as demonstration of how data-driven cooperation can make government more efficient for everyone,” he explains. 

The dadeX platform also facilitates cross-border data exchange among European Union (EU) members states as it follows the once-only principle under EU’s Single Digital Gateway Regulation, Ebner says. 

“This not only supports a wide range of use cases for citizens and businesses, but also underpins new solutions such as the delivery of verified attributes to the European Digital Identity Wallet,” he notes. 

Focus on usability to boost adoption 

Public acceptance follows naturally when e-government services are user-centred, says Ebner. 

According to the eGovernment MONITOR 2024 study, Austria’s e-government services have been widely used across all age groups (72 per cent aged 55 and above, and 78 per cent of those aged 16 to 34 using these services). 

Ninety-four per cent of users also wanted to continue using e-government services in the future, with 71 per cent of them believing that it was significantly better to handle administrative tasks digitally than to adopt traditional methods.  

Ebner highlights the example of using the ID Austria mobile app to enroll for online services.  

Citizens only need to confirm a push notification on ID Austria with their fingerprint or PIN to enroll for the service, removing the processes of registering and providing proof of identity and consent for an account. 

Like Finland and Singapore where GovInsider has reported previously, Austria has also put in place the application-free employee tax assessment, which has become a well-known example of a zero-touch digital government service.  

“Thanks to persistent authentication and biometric confirmation [through ID Austria], users can view their tax records instantly, while the platform continues with trusted automated processing without repeated identity checks,” says Ebner. 

Incorporating ID Austria alongside key credentials like driving licence all in one app has improved the usability and eventually, the adoption rates.  

More than 4.1 million users have registered for ID Austria, and over two million have downloaded and actively used it. 

“These figures clearly show that when digital services are simple, secure and useful, people are eager to use them,” he said.  

Usability and credibility can help build trust, he says, emphasising the need to build user’s confidence through technical assurance, clarity and design consistency. 

“Interfaces are straightforward, visually coherent and aligned with citizens’ expectations of a secure digital experience.  

“Partnerships with trusted private sector entities, including banks and telecom providers, reinforced this credibility,” he explains. 

Key takeaways from Austria’s digital government journey 

One of the key takeaways was focusing on interoperability, not uniformity, says Ebner. 

Recognising that multiple access systems would coexist at some point, Austria has designed ID Austria, to integrate easily with both government and private sector applications. 

This replaces the need for users to have multiple accounts and passwords for each service provider, while making digital interactions more convenient and secure. 

“This pragmatic coexistence prevented user resistance and enabled a smoother transition,” he notes. 

Another lesson was to start small and scale systemically.  

On the evolution of its ID Austria, he says that “taking an incremental approach reduced friction, built trust and allowed the user experience (UX) and policy insights to mature over time, proving that evolution rather than revolution often leads to sustainable adoption.” 

The final takeaway was starting with clear everyday values and consistent communication.  

According to Ebner, the government positioned its digital ID not simply as a technical or security product, but as an enabler of useful, everyday services.  

Communication should focus on practical, immediate, and relatable benefits for citizens in using the e-government service, he says.