Public service organizations (PSOs) link on the one hand the government and the law, and on the other hand citizens, via the delivery of public services. Based on the state of the art of standards, principles and processes of human/user-centered service design, we analyze the practices in Dutch PSOs. The basis for this are practices documented on a weblog by a practitioner-researcher reporting and reflecting on four projects over five years. Based on this online journal we identified five themes that influence human/user-centered service design in PSO-practices. 1) Tension between collective and individual needs, 2) Public services should be inclusive for everyone, 3) A top down, hierarchical culture prevents user focus, 4) User feedback competes with policy implementation and IT-changes, and 5) PSOs are part of a larger service ecosystem. We conclude that to deliver truly human/user-centered public services, service design in PSOs should focus on more than just design process aspects and also take into account the law and policy making that precede the design and delivery of the service, as well as the institutional and (inter-)organizational perspective. For service design standards, principles and processes to be applicable to public design contexts, these should be expanded or customized to be able to deal with the specific dynamics of PSOs.