Abstract

This article aims to clarify how public digital user interfaces discursively enable and constrain interaction between citizens and the welfare state, both digitally and offline, and the potential implications of these interfaces and interactions for older citizens. An analysis of four digital welfare user interfaces in Sweden shows that information gathering is at the core and that their multimodal nature and personal language usage can foster a welcoming environment for citizens. Additionally, the study suggests that the design of these interfaces shapes the structuring of citizenship, as they not only demand specific actions from citizens to access the right information but also require knowledge about what to look for. Consequently, citizens bear the burden of work and responsibility, potentially contributing to the low use of online public services among older people and serving the renegotiation of welfare provision altogether. One way to mitigate this rigid structuring of citizenship is to offer offline interaction, a notion that is discursively promoted in some interfaces but pushed back in others. User interfaces that enable offline interaction may be beneficial for digitally vulnerable social groups, such as the older ones among citizens over age 65. However, those interfaces that are predominantly rooted in a digital-only approach risk excluding such groups.