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Disclaimer I used to work for the Ministry of Justice (UK) as a software developer. There are two aspects I feel worth mentioning: 1. GOV.UK is not one single

by xuan 8y ago

Disclaimer I used to work for the Ministry of Justice (UK) as a software developer. There are two aspects I feel worth mentioning: 1. GOV.UK is not one single unit but rather quite distributed. these styles and standards are created by a central organisation called Government Digital Service, and all the the government departments follow and feedback. There is a design community and one of the ways of collaboration is to use a Wiki https://paper.dropbox.com/doc/GOV.UK-Design-Patterns-Wiki-hkou7bpzKya8Dadv24V1z https://paper.dropbox.com/doc/GOV.UK-Design-Patterns-Wiki-hk... 2. UK government is a big open source software contributor. Software projects by default are open source on github. It felt really good getting paid for writing open source code when I worked there :) https://www.gov.uk/guidance/be-open-and-use-open-source https://www.gov.uk/guidance/be-open-and-use-open-source

m0nty 8y ago
This is a complete 180 from about 18 years ago, when I contacted someone re. the Jobcentre website requiring Internet Explorer: "I only have a Linux system, how can I get access?" "We only support Microsoft Explorer." "So if I use Linux I can't find a job?" "We only support Microsoft Explorer." That kind of blinkered approach went on for far too long, so it's a real pleasure to use the various websites on gov.uk at the moment. Even traditionally unpleasant things like filing a VAT return are relatively low friction, and taxing a car is absurdly easy. Now, how can we get the same sort of thing to happen across Whitehall and Westminster more generally? ;)