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Agreed, GOV.UK is so underrated. Their service review teams (who give approval) are relentless about user research, accessibility and ultimate effectiveness of

Agreed, GOV.UK is so underrated. Their service review teams (who give approval) are relentless about user research, accessibility and ultimate effectiveness of the service. They won't allow a service to pass an assessment until it meets these on a very high standard, no matter how 'urgent' or important the project is. Their commitment to accessibility is also laudable, unlike other commercial organisations who aren't incentivised to service that minority. Many people complain that GOV.UK "looks boring" but it's brilliantly effective.

IshKebab 8y ago
Do people actually complain about that? I've never heard anyone in the real world even mention gov.uk.
- fredley 8y ago
  People probably don't mention it because it's so good it's invisible. In my experiance people in the 'real world' only mention (read: bitch about) services they struggle with.
- marsRoverDev 8y ago
  I have never heard any complaints in real life, only praise. Gov.uk is brilliant for the same reason facebook beat myspace; it's clean and predictable design which focuses on functionality.
stuartd 8y ago
relentless about user research You're not kidding there. Every single time I go to do PAYE I get the same survey questions, even though (when I can be bothered) I tell them they could improve the site by .. not showing me the same survey every time.
- jon-wood 8y ago
  In fairness I'm pretty sure GDS haven't taken over PAYE yet, so they can't really be blamed for that.
  - flooq 8y ago
    GDS don’t actually take over many services. It’s HMRC’s responsibility to update their services to meet GOV.UK standards.
SmellyGeekBoy 8y ago
If people are complaining they obviously didn't have to deal with the horrors that they replaced! It's always so jarring to be taken back to the odd parts that are still running on the old system (mainly when digging around in PAYE / VAT stuff). The modern GOV.UK is a breath of fresh air compared to the government's online offerings when I first started in business 8 years ago.
- deadbunny 8y ago
  The old HMRC website is so so bad, I dread VAT time.
jamesb93 8y ago
If you're on a government website giving feedback that it's boring you really need to evaluate your priorities. It's a website for utility.
sourceless 8y ago
Former GDSer here[0] - this was one of the things that really grabbed me was the focus on design for users -- and this included release cycle as you say! In addition, we were encouraged to throw away PoCs (that had passed the first service assessment) and start anew to make sure we ended up with a great service at the end of it. This meant that inside a pretty large organisation, testing and validating new services was relatively easy as you could cut corners on the PoC and have an institutional understanding that you'd probably throw it away entirely and start again with something more solid. One of the mantras that was oft repeated was that 'people do not have a choice to use our service' -- because it was a service that only the govt could provide for whatever reason. The government service manual is amazing, alongside things like the service design rules (more aimed at UI/UX designers). In addition, the entire team for a service or section thereof would participate in nearly everything. User research (actually watching users use the site) - everyone was there, from user researchers to product managers to developers and designers. It's a shame more of it wasn't adopted by other govt dept (there are notable exceptions who have done a very good job) [0] Plug - I worked on the new data.gov.uk [1] https://www.gov.uk/service-manual https://www.gov.uk/service-manual
- toomuchtodo 8y ago
  Thank you for your service!

IshKebab 8y ago

Do people actually complain about that? I've never heard anyone in the real world even mention gov.uk.

fredley 8y ago
People probably don't mention it because it's so good it's invisible. In my experiance people in the 'real world' only mention (read: bitch about) services they struggle with.
marsRoverDev 8y ago
I have never heard any complaints in real life, only praise. Gov.uk is brilliant for the same reason facebook beat myspace; it's clean and predictable design which focuses on functionality.

stuartd 8y ago

relentless about user research You're not kidding there. Every single time I go to do PAYE I get the same survey questions, even though (when I can be bothered) I tell them they could improve the site by .. not showing me the same survey every time.

jon-wood 8y ago
In fairness I'm pretty sure GDS haven't taken over PAYE yet, so they can't really be blamed for that.
- flooq 8y ago
  GDS don’t actually take over many services. It’s HMRC’s responsibility to update their services to meet GOV.UK standards.

SmellyGeekBoy 8y ago

If people are complaining they obviously didn't have to deal with the horrors that they replaced! It's always so jarring to be taken back to the odd parts that are still running on the old system (mainly when digging around in PAYE / VAT stuff). The modern GOV.UK is a breath of fresh air compared to the government's online offerings when I first started in business 8 years ago.

deadbunny 8y ago
The old HMRC website is so so bad, I dread VAT time.

jamesb93 8y ago

If you're on a government website giving feedback that it's boring you really need to evaluate your priorities. It's a website for utility.

sourceless 8y ago

Former GDSer here[0] - this was one of the things that really grabbed me was the focus on design for users -- and this included release cycle as you say! In addition, we were encouraged to throw away PoCs (that had passed the first service assessment) and start anew to make sure we ended up with a great service at the end of it. This meant that inside a pretty large organisation, testing and validating new services was relatively easy as you could cut corners on the PoC and have an institutional understanding that you'd probably throw it away entirely and start again with something more solid. One of the mantras that was oft repeated was that 'people do not have a choice to use our service' -- because it was a service that only the govt could provide for whatever reason. The government service manual is amazing, alongside things like the service design rules (more aimed at UI/UX designers). In addition, the entire team for a service or section thereof would participate in nearly everything. User research (actually watching users use the site) - everyone was there, from user researchers to product managers to developers and designers. It's a shame more of it wasn't adopted by other govt dept (there are notable exceptions who have done a very good job) [0] Plug - I worked on the new data.gov.uk [1] https://www.gov.uk/service-manual https://www.gov.uk/service-manual

toomuchtodo 8y ago
Thank you for your service!