I just had to renew my passport in Germany, which in involves making new (biometric) photos, having them print out at the shop, going to the proper authorities,

I just had to renew my passport in Germany, which in involves making new (biometric) photos, having them print out at the shop, going to the proper authorities, who will then scan those photos and fill in a form with basic questions for you. I expected to be able to do all of this online by now, but it is definitely not possible in Germany yet. So this seemed like a good test run for the UK gov site and the experience (as far as I took it) has been nothing but pleasant. That's how it should be done.