4 ms·

"is it possible to create a shared set of tools to provide consistent, beautiful, and easy-to-use government websites?" Yup: http://gov.uk http://gov.uk They

by scoot 11y ago

"is it possible to create a shared set of tools to provide consistent, beautiful, and easy-to-use government websites?" Yup: http://gov.uk http://gov.uk They even copied the colour scheme: https://playbook.cio.gov/designstandards/visual-style/#colors https://playbook.cio.gov/designstandards/visual-style/#color...

sosuke 11y ago
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. I thought of gov.uk as well. I hope 18F took influence from gov.uk's user testing on form design as well.
z1mm32m4n 11y ago
Not gonna lie, I confused this site for one of those sites you see on parked domains. I can see a resemblance with respect to the color scheme, but I think the entire design aesthetic is completely different.
- comex 11y ago
  I had the same impression (on an iPhone). I'm not really sure what contributed to my unconscious snap judgement, but I think it has to do with the layout of the search box and list of links, along with the lack of images (other than a little icon in the corner) and the four copies of the domain name (in all caps) on the page.
  - huac 11y ago
    The "popular on gov.uk" links are in that perfect mix of random and search engine keyword that domain parkers love (SEO baby!)
britta 11y ago
These UK and US government tech efforts have a friendly relationship: https://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2015/09/24/uk-and-us-meet-forge-new-steps-toward-even-closer-digital-collaboration https://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2015/09/24/uk-and-us-meet-fo...
hliyan 11y ago
That is the most elegant, beautiful and usable government website I have ever seen.
philliphaydon 11y ago
Gov.UK is a terrible website. https://medium.com/@prenticemathew/ux-specialists-are-killing-web-design-50b7d7607c13 https://medium.com/@prenticemathew/ux-specialists-are-killin...
- RivieraKid 11y ago
  Most people love it. IMHO this is the best government website.
- callum85 11y ago
  That article is bullshit. You can't judge gov.uk by its homepage, because that's almost never where you land. Now that we have gov.uk, whenever I google something about doing my tax, or registering to vote at a new address, or any other arduous governmental admin shit, I usually end up on a beautifully simple and focused gov.uk page, and I'm in and out in 2 minutes. That's what a government website is about. I agree the homepage looks like a parked domain but whatever. Take a random page like this: https://www.gov.uk/alter-a-will-after-a-death https://www.gov.uk/alter-a-will-after-a-death Look at how brief and clear the writing is. Look at how straightforward its URL is. Have a look at some more pages, look how consistent the design language is. This is exactly what a government website should be like.
notahacker 11y ago
Arguably unifying of back-ends are more important than the visual design for consistency and ease of use though. The introduction to the article shows several different styles of registration or login button used across different US govt departments, but the key point here is that they're all separate user identities requiring separate logins. Making visually identical login flows that actually require different credentials to log into separate services actually makes things worse for periodic users of multiple government sites. What's needed as an even higher priority than changing the buttons is a uniform OpenGovernmentID everywhere it makes sense to do so Priority number two for ease of use in government websites would probably be fixing link rot, since government websites have a horrible tendency to deep link to other departments just before that department's site gets reorganised or renames (and departments whose sites were replaced by the gov.uk platform unfortunately are no exception)
andyjohnson0 11y ago
The (UK) Government Service Design Manual has a section for UX designers [1]. [1] https://www.gov.uk/service-manual/designers https://www.gov.uk/service-manual/designers

by scoot 11y ago

sosuke 11y ago

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. I thought of gov.uk as well. I hope 18F took influence from gov.uk's user testing on form design as well.

z1mm32m4n 11y ago

Not gonna lie, I confused this site for one of those sites you see on parked domains. I can see a resemblance with respect to the color scheme, but I think the entire design aesthetic is completely different.

comex 11y ago
I had the same impression (on an iPhone). I'm not really sure what contributed to my unconscious snap judgement, but I think it has to do with the layout of the search box and list of links, along with the lack of images (other than a little icon in the corner) and the four copies of the domain name (in all caps) on the page.
- huac 11y ago
  The "popular on gov.uk" links are in that perfect mix of random and search engine keyword that domain parkers love (SEO baby!)

britta 11y ago

These UK and US government tech efforts have a friendly relationship: https://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2015/09/24/uk-and-us-meet-forge-new-steps-toward-even-closer-digital-collaboration https://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2015/09/24/uk-and-us-meet-fo...

hliyan 11y ago

That is the most elegant, beautiful and usable government website I have ever seen.

philliphaydon 11y ago

Gov.UK is a terrible website. https://medium.com/@prenticemathew/ux-specialists-are-killing-web-design-50b7d7607c13 https://medium.com/@prenticemathew/ux-specialists-are-killin...

RivieraKid 11y ago
Most people love it. IMHO this is the best government website.
callum85 11y ago
That article is bullshit. You can't judge gov.uk by its homepage, because that's almost never where you land. Now that we have gov.uk, whenever I google something about doing my tax, or registering to vote at a new address, or any other arduous governmental admin shit, I usually end up on a beautifully simple and focused gov.uk page, and I'm in and out in 2 minutes. That's what a government website is about. I agree the homepage looks like a parked domain but whatever. Take a random page like this: https://www.gov.uk/alter-a-will-after-a-death https://www.gov.uk/alter-a-will-after-a-death Look at how brief and clear the writing is. Look at how straightforward its URL is. Have a look at some more pages, look how consistent the design language is. This is exactly what a government website should be like.

notahacker 11y ago

Arguably unifying of back-ends are more important than the visual design for consistency and ease of use though. The introduction to the article shows several different styles of registration or login button used across different US govt departments, but the key point here is that they're all separate user identities requiring separate logins. Making visually identical login flows that actually require different credentials to log into separate services actually makes things worse for periodic users of multiple government sites. What's needed as an even higher priority than changing the buttons is a uniform OpenGovernmentID everywhere it makes sense to do so Priority number two for ease of use in government websites would probably be fixing link rot, since government websites have a horrible tendency to deep link to other departments just before that department's site gets reorganised or renames (and departments whose sites were replaced by the gov.uk platform unfortunately are no exception)

andyjohnson0 11y ago

The (UK) Government Service Design Manual has a section for UX designers [1]. [1] https://www.gov.uk/service-manual/designers https://www.gov.uk/service-manual/designers