Many countries are developing e-government applications for digitalisation of the interaction between citizens and government administrations. To be successful, such applications must be usable and provide good user experience for all. In Denmark, e-government applications have traditionally been developed through a contract-based approach; but the experience has been quite negative, in particular in terms of user experience and innovation. To increase the user experience and provide a broader range of innovative solutions, the Danish government and the organization of the municipalities have produced guidelines and material for a more user-centred development process for the ongoing digitalisation of local government services. We present the guidelines and material together with the findings from case studies in four IT companies, where we have interviewed employees and conducted redesign workshops. Our findings indicate that the material and guidelines are a step forward, but they are too general and have failed to ensure a reasonable level of usability and user experience.