5 ms·

Things we learnt designing 'Register to vote'

33 points by joelanman 12y ago

seanhandley 12y ago
"Things we learned"
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
- darrhiggs 12y ago
  It seems[0] as though in british english (.gov.uk) learnt is acceptable. [0] http://www.usingenglish.com/forum/threads/5331-Ues-of-Learned-vs-Learnt http://www.usingenglish.com/forum/threads/5331-Ues-of-Learne...
  - seanhandley 12y ago
    "Learnt" and "learned" are both acceptable spellings. The issue is that the former is an adjective and the latter is a verb (past-tense). See my comment.
    - threedaymonk 12y ago
      There is no issue. Both learned and learnt are acceptable and attested for the verb, pace the OED: learn, v. Forms: Pa. tense and pple. learned /lɜːnd/ , learnt /lɜːnt/ .
- kszx 12y ago
  http://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=learned%2C%20learnt http://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=learned%2C%20learnt
  - seanhandley 12y ago
    "Learnt" and "learned" are both acceptable spellings. The issue is that the former is an adjective and the latter is a verb (past-tense). See my comment.
- seanhandley 12y ago
  "Things we learned". When you say "learnt", it's when used as an adjective (a describing word). For instance "My knowledge of grammar is learnt". When you're using it as a verb (a doing word), it's "learned" i.e. "Today, I learned something". Today you learned about "learned", hopefully that's your lesson "learnt".
  - seanhandley 12y ago
    This is especially important because we also have the adjective "learned" e.g. "the scholar was widely regarded as a wise and learned individual".
  - joelanman 12y ago
    Interesting - do you have a source for that?
    - fallingbadgers 12y ago
      According to the sources I can find "learnt" is the English and "learned" the American version http://www.grammar-monster.com/easily_confused/learned_learnt.htm http://www.grammar-monster.com/easily_confused/learned_learn...
basicallydan 12y ago
I used this tool a couple of days ago when I moved house. It was a real joy. Good job, GDS team.
NickPollard 12y ago
I did not even know this was possible, thanks for bringing it to my attention. As someone who has had numerous electoral roll forms sent piled up in my letterbox, refusing to cease since repeatedly filling them in and sending them back, it's great for the government to provide this. Big thanks and congratulations to the team that delivered this.
anon1385 12y ago
I can't believe these clowns are still using Google Analytics. Who the hell thinks that an advertising corporation in a foreign country that has no privacy regulations should be profiling and tracking my activity when I interact with my government. That includes interactions like registering to vote, 'anonymously' reporting crimes[1], applying for a passport[2] or driving licence[3]. Thankfully the gov.uk hipsters haven't got to the inland revenue sites so at least Google doesn't know my tax details. Yet. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6985916 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6985916 [2] https://www.gov.uk/apply-renew-passport https://www.gov.uk/apply-renew-passport [3] https://www.gov.uk/apply-first-provisional-driving-licence https://www.gov.uk/apply-first-provisional-driving-licence
- ihuman 12y ago
  Do you have a UK-based, secure, and trustworthy alternative?
  - pdkl95 12y ago
    Apache/NGINX logs. Like we used to do before everybody decided to "outsource" that task. Hosting service doesn't provide access to the log files? Get a better hosting service, as that used to be a fairly standard feature. CDN or caching proxy doesn't give you the log files (or at least summarized stats)? Start demanding they provide that feature, or switch to a different service/vendor. Existing log parsers are missing some type of statistical analysis that Google provided? Option 1: Do you really need that feature, or is it simply "cool" or "might be useful"? Option 2: write it yourself; doing stats on log files isn't particularly hard. I never understood why everybody was so quick to give Google such massive amounts of valuable data in exchange for something as trivial as a log parser and a few gnuplot charts. None of this needs as 3rd party. Besides: why do you assume that the analysis provided by google-analytics is accurate? A lot of us block {,www.,ssl.}google-analytics.com and are not included. You cannot opt-out of the apache log and still get the page.
colmvp 12y ago
> 2. It’s easier to discover what to add than what to remove > Seeing that very few people had a problem on this step enabled us to hide the help text behind a link – making the screen simpler for the majority. Awesome. So often I work with people who don't have the courage to at least try/test a solution that doesn't treat the people who will use the product like an idiot and instead populate as much instructional text as possible.
- joelanman 12y ago
  Regular testing with users is key to an approach like this - we mostly test every couple of weeks, sometimes going weekly if there's a particularly sticky problem to solve
dchest 12y ago
Noticed this strange date entry form: http://imgur.com/fdaUEi1 http://imgur.com/fdaUEi1 I wonder how many people correctly understood that you have to select a month and enter a year in the second field.
- joelanman 12y ago
  Good spot! I'll raise it for fixing
suzyperplexus 12y ago
I love the gov.uk people. Their design principles doc is still bookmarked for me https://www.gov.uk/design-principles https://www.gov.uk/design-principles

33 points by joelanman 12y ago

seanhandley 12y ago

"Things we learned"

deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
darrhiggs 12y ago
It seems[0] as though in british english (.gov.uk) learnt is acceptable. [0] http://www.usingenglish.com/forum/threads/5331-Ues-of-Learned-vs-Learnt http://www.usingenglish.com/forum/threads/5331-Ues-of-Learne...
- seanhandley 12y ago
  "Learnt" and "learned" are both acceptable spellings. The issue is that the former is an adjective and the latter is a verb (past-tense). See my comment.
  - threedaymonk 12y ago
    There is no issue. Both learned and learnt are acceptable and attested for the verb, pace the OED: learn, v. Forms: Pa. tense and pple. learned /lɜːnd/ , learnt /lɜːnt/ .
kszx 12y ago
http://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=learned%2C%20learnt http://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=learned%2C%20learnt
- seanhandley 12y ago
  "Learnt" and "learned" are both acceptable spellings. The issue is that the former is an adjective and the latter is a verb (past-tense). See my comment.
seanhandley 12y ago
"Things we learned". When you say "learnt", it's when used as an adjective (a describing word). For instance "My knowledge of grammar is learnt". When you're using it as a verb (a doing word), it's "learned" i.e. "Today, I learned something". Today you learned about "learned", hopefully that's your lesson "learnt".
- seanhandley 12y ago
  This is especially important because we also have the adjective "learned" e.g. "the scholar was widely regarded as a wise and learned individual".
- joelanman 12y ago
  Interesting - do you have a source for that?
  - fallingbadgers 12y ago
    According to the sources I can find "learnt" is the English and "learned" the American version http://www.grammar-monster.com/easily_confused/learned_learnt.htm http://www.grammar-monster.com/easily_confused/learned_learn...

basicallydan 12y ago

I used this tool a couple of days ago when I moved house. It was a real joy. Good job, GDS team.

NickPollard 12y ago

I did not even know this was possible, thanks for bringing it to my attention. As someone who has had numerous electoral roll forms sent piled up in my letterbox, refusing to cease since repeatedly filling them in and sending them back, it's great for the government to provide this. Big thanks and congratulations to the team that delivered this.

anon1385 12y ago

I can't believe these clowns are still using Google Analytics. Who the hell thinks that an advertising corporation in a foreign country that has no privacy regulations should be profiling and tracking my activity when I interact with my government. That includes interactions like registering to vote, 'anonymously' reporting crimes[1], applying for a passport[2] or driving licence[3]. Thankfully the gov.uk hipsters haven't got to the inland revenue sites so at least Google doesn't know my tax details. Yet. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6985916 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6985916 [2] https://www.gov.uk/apply-renew-passport https://www.gov.uk/apply-renew-passport [3] https://www.gov.uk/apply-first-provisional-driving-licence https://www.gov.uk/apply-first-provisional-driving-licence

ihuman 12y ago
Do you have a UK-based, secure, and trustworthy alternative?
- pdkl95 12y ago
  Apache/NGINX logs. Like we used to do before everybody decided to "outsource" that task. Hosting service doesn't provide access to the log files? Get a better hosting service, as that used to be a fairly standard feature. CDN or caching proxy doesn't give you the log files (or at least summarized stats)? Start demanding they provide that feature, or switch to a different service/vendor. Existing log parsers are missing some type of statistical analysis that Google provided? Option 1: Do you really need that feature, or is it simply "cool" or "might be useful"? Option 2: write it yourself; doing stats on log files isn't particularly hard. I never understood why everybody was so quick to give Google such massive amounts of valuable data in exchange for something as trivial as a log parser and a few gnuplot charts. None of this needs as 3rd party. Besides: why do you assume that the analysis provided by google-analytics is accurate? A lot of us block {,www.,ssl.}google-analytics.com and are not included. You cannot opt-out of the apache log and still get the page.

colmvp 12y ago

> 2. It’s easier to discover what to add than what to remove > Seeing that very few people had a problem on this step enabled us to hide the help text behind a link – making the screen simpler for the majority. Awesome. So often I work with people who don't have the courage to at least try/test a solution that doesn't treat the people who will use the product like an idiot and instead populate as much instructional text as possible.

joelanman 12y ago
Regular testing with users is key to an approach like this - we mostly test every couple of weeks, sometimes going weekly if there's a particularly sticky problem to solve

dchest 12y ago

Noticed this strange date entry form: http://imgur.com/fdaUEi1 http://imgur.com/fdaUEi1 I wonder how many people correctly understood that you have to select a month and enter a year in the second field.

joelanman 12y ago
Good spot! I'll raise it for fixing

suzyperplexus 12y ago

I love the gov.uk people. Their design principles doc is still bookmarked for me https://www.gov.uk/design-principles https://www.gov.uk/design-principles