Design. It's not a word you'd instantly connect with public services. It brings to mind uber-trendy Soho types who have designed a beautiful, expensive table made of see-thru plastic. It doesn't make me think of West Midlands teenagers being provided with a custom-designed shelter to hang out in, and causing less grief to their neighbours as a result.

But that is design, it turns out. My newfound knowledge has come from the Design Council, where I met policy adviser Emily Thomas yesterday. Having worked in Whitehall as a special adviser, where she dealt with the innovation brief, she really knows her stuff and I spent a fascinating hour with her.

I won't scoop the interview, due to be published in Civil Service World next month, but one of the areas we talked about was her work on improving the design of public services. One of the British Council's biggest bits of work in this area has been an NHS-funded competition, inviting designers to ‘design out’ MRSA and other super-bugs in the Health Service.

One of the entries has been a bedside cabinet that is easier to clean. We all know what it is like to try and clean some fiddly bit of kitchen equipment whose nooks and crannies seem to breed dirt and grease. Imagine cleaning hundreds of them a day: even if hospital cleaners were well paid, which they’re often not, I can imagine getting sick to the back teeth, and perhaps a little slack, with that task.

Emily Thomas said one of the important things about well-designed services and products was getting the user involved: they know best what will work and won't. An interesting side effect of this, she said, was that people felt more engaged, partly because design is so visual. A 20-page consultation document produced in Whitehall would not generate the same interest, she said.

I saw this for myself last night, when I had some friends round for dinner and one of them asked me how work had been that day. Often, when I answer this question, people's eyes can become a little glazed over as I wax lyrical about smarter procurement practices or ‘lean management’ systems. This time I had four people listening attentively; one person's verdict was that it was really interesting. Unusual.

But it wasn't just the fact that they could visualise what I was talking about, I think it also struck a chord with them because it was all so simple and so... obvious. And astounding that it hadn’t been done before.

Another example I gave them was something from the Design Council's 'Designing Out Crime' initiative. Me and my friends are keen commuting cyclists and one of the products that has been developed is a bike stand that, instead of being the straight up-across-and-down Sheffield design, looks more like an M. The beauty of this simple change is that it is easier to lock your frame and your wheels to the stand. Hey presto: your bike is less likely to be stolen.

Excitingly, as I was cycling home from the Design Council in London last night, I actually saw some of these new bike stands being installed outside the Cochrane Theatre in Holborn. I don't think I have ever walked out of an interview and seen the reality of what we've been discussing so quickly.

But, it got me thinking. I remember reading about how the Cyclehoop - a cunning device that transforms ordinary lampposts into a bike stand - was being installed in in the Southwark borough of London, but despite cycling through there on my daily commute, I have not seen more than a handful of them.

Even more frustratingly, I have watched a new development, including a supermarket, go up in the same area with no bike racks included in the design - even though there is a massive expanse of pavement, with more than enough room for them. Cycling shoppers must either find the nearest lamppost (without Cyclehoops) or lean their bikes against the shop front and hope for the best. If we're lucky, the pavement will be dug up and stands installed - but that will cost money, and the smart and carefully laid-out paving stones will be full of holes and look a lot less aesthetically pleasing. Much better if it had been thought of first.

How do you make good, well thought-out design systemic? I asked Emily Thomas and she had some answers (see the interview for full details), but they seemed to rest on simple optimism that people would realise that, ultimately, it would save money and time. If anyone else has any ideas about how to make good design the norm, I would be very keen to hear them.