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One niggle I have is the departments’ over-use of forms (from my perspective) in employing the ‘landing page’ pattern. E.g. if you search ‘DVLA vehicle informa

One niggle I have is the departments’ over-use of forms (from my perspective) in employing the ‘landing page’ pattern. E.g. if you search ‘DVLA vehicle information’, you will land on this page https://www.gov.uk/get-vehicle-information-from-dvla https://www.gov.uk/get-vehicle-information-from-dvla and you have to click ‘Start Now’ to get the page you actually wanted. The same is for logging in to HMRC Personal Tax I’d like the actual form I want on the same page

imdsm 3y ago
I can understand that, but I think it's very subjective. For example, it's an opportunity to explain what the form is, and give any other information (do you need the form? do you need something else?) before the option of, if you're in the right place, click here to begin. I think ultimately, it works quite well.
- switch007 3y ago
  I do see it from both sides, definitely. It’s just as a frequent user, it gets in the way. Once you understand what the form does, you don’t really need to be told every time.
  - globular-toast 3y ago
    Can't you just bookmark the form itself? The example you linked seems to be a normal link to the form, I don't think it's posting anything?
    - switch007 3y ago
      Oh totally, that's a great suggestion. Though with ever-more pages conforming to this pattern, I don't want to have to bookmark them all - that's what a search engine is for. I think it's still a valid discussion about first-time users vs frequent users etc and how much blurb you should show them each time. But they've probably already done the research on this and decided on it for a very specific set of reasons
londons_explore 3y ago
The fact the forms load so fast makes this less of a problem. If the form took 10 seconds to load after clicking 'start now', I'd be more frustrated.
- switch007 3y ago
  Definitely mitigates it. For me though it’s still an annoyance
matthewcford 3y ago
This is so that search can work, they index service start pages so they have results for services that are hosted on other domains. There is also something about having a consistance UX, at least to the point of handoff to the service (which might not have been updated yet). The start pages also provide the user with guidance were say the service might be only avalible at certain times, or if you need documentation ready before you use it.
timblair 3y ago
This is actually an explicit decision, designed to maintain consistency of the user experience across GOV.UK services in terms of information architecture and content design. It's not something that departments choose to do (or not), and is codified in the GOV.UK Service Manual: https://www.gov.uk/service-manual/technology/get-a-domain-name#ensure-users-start-their-journey-on-govuk https://www.gov.uk/service-manual/technology/get-a-domain-na...

imdsm 3y ago

I can understand that, but I think it's very subjective. For example, it's an opportunity to explain what the form is, and give any other information (do you need the form? do you need something else?) before the option of, if you're in the right place, click here to begin. I think ultimately, it works quite well.

switch007 3y ago
I do see it from both sides, definitely. It’s just as a frequent user, it gets in the way. Once you understand what the form does, you don’t really need to be told every time.
- globular-toast 3y ago
  Can't you just bookmark the form itself? The example you linked seems to be a normal link to the form, I don't think it's posting anything?
  - switch007 3y ago
    Oh totally, that's a great suggestion. Though with ever-more pages conforming to this pattern, I don't want to have to bookmark them all - that's what a search engine is for. I think it's still a valid discussion about first-time users vs frequent users etc and how much blurb you should show them each time. But they've probably already done the research on this and decided on it for a very specific set of reasons

londons_explore 3y ago

The fact the forms load so fast makes this less of a problem. If the form took 10 seconds to load after clicking 'start now', I'd be more frustrated.

switch007 3y ago
Definitely mitigates it. For me though it’s still an annoyance

matthewcford 3y ago

This is so that search can work, they index service start pages so they have results for services that are hosted on other domains. There is also something about having a consistance UX, at least to the point of handoff to the service (which might not have been updated yet). The start pages also provide the user with guidance were say the service might be only avalible at certain times, or if you need documentation ready before you use it.

timblair 3y ago

This is actually an explicit decision, designed to maintain consistency of the user experience across GOV.UK services in terms of information architecture and content design. It's not something that departments choose to do (or not), and is codified in the GOV.UK Service Manual: https://www.gov.uk/service-manual/technology/get-a-domain-name#ensure-users-start-their-journey-on-govuk https://www.gov.uk/service-manual/technology/get-a-domain-na...