How did we get here?
In 2004 the government web went from a loosely coordinated collection of websites...
to something a bit simpler... DirectgovBusiness Link
A tremendous achievement, which brought enormous benefits, but it’s time to move on again DirectgovBusiness Link
The web is now mainstream Users expect high quality service experiences And businesses know how to deliver them
We’ve gone from this... directgovbusinesslink DirectgovBusiness Link
...to a single domain Mainstream Users & Needs Specialist Users & Needs GOV.UK
Focused on user needs, not government needs
Simpler
Clearer
Faster
Simpler Clearer Faster…….
Simpler Clearer Faster……. …..and loads cheaper
£ 50 million Estimated saving per year by replacing Directgov, BusinessLink, departmental sites and related organisation sites with GOV.UK
E.g. Online: 22p Phone: £4.11 Post: £6.62 Digital by default 20 x cheaper than phone, 30 x cheaper than post 50 x cheaper than face-to-face
We’re doing less
Focussed on tasks, getting to the “quick do”
We’re optimising for the common case but not ignoring the edge case
What does this mean for local government?
There are 134 journeys from GOV.UK to local government
We need your help to make those journeys as good as possible
But equally importantly, there are things you can copy that we have learnt along the way
GOV.UK puts user needs at the heart of content design
But what is a user need?
Defining the user need “As a _______ I want to ________ so that I can ________”
Defining the user need “As a self-employed person I want to file my tax return so that I can avoid nasty fines.”
Who’s the audience? What’s the action? Why do they want to do it?
What’s the evidence of need?
Holiday entitlement Annual leave
Holiday entitlement search
User journeys should be: short simple specific Users won’t read your content - so don’t make them!
User journeys should: be written in language used by real people while taking account of language used by government
Now it’s time for all of you to put your customer hats on…