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200 days of transformation, 200 days to go
We set an ambitious challenge at Sprint 13; transform government in just 400 working days. Today Sprint 14 marked the halfway point, and the results are terrific; the transformation programme has...
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Publishing Digital Service Assessments
The Digital by Default Service Standard comes into full force in April this year. We’ve been running assessments for a while now, and as with the services we assess, we’re also looking to continuously...
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GOV.UK page performance: are we fulfilling our content goals?
In the content team we’ve developed new theme dashboards that give us a page-level indication of GOV.UK mainstream content performance. These dashboards are useful to everyone in GDS, as GOV.UK user...
View ArticleGDS visits UKGovcamp
On Saturday 25th January 2014 we visited UKGovcamp; the annual ‘unconference’ for people interested in how the public sector does digital stuff. The event was held at City Hall, Southbank, London. Find...
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Looking back at Sprint 14
We made two short videos for Sprint 14 that give you a little glimpse into the work being done by teams all over the country to transform services. Both show what it’s like to be working on the...
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Improving GOV.UK on mobile devices
Mobile use on GOV.UK has increased significantly since launch in October 2012, moving from around 15% to 23% of the overall audience. We are now starting to improve the experience for mobile and...
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What is identity assurance?
Identity assurance is a new service that will give people a secure and convenient way to sign in to government services. Why we need identity assurance The 25 exemplar services (the government services...
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Striking a balance between security and usability
Last year our boss Mike Bracken talked at the Code for America Summit in San Francisco, and spoke about the need to strike a balance between usability and security. There is a point beyond which...
View ArticleSharing Sprint 14
With Sprint 14 now behind us, we wanted to share Baroness Martha Lane Fox’s opening speech, and the presentations and workshops given on the day. Martha used her talk to remind everyone how far we’ve...
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How to find all the maps published on GOV.UK
Government does a lot of stuff with maps, and if you like maps you might like to know about this clever trick for finding every single one that gets published on GOV.UK. Start off at the Publications...
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Weekend links
We wanted to try something new – sharing the things we’ve liked over the past week in a blog post. Let us know what you think: @GDSTeam 2014 is the Year of Code – encouraging people across the country...
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Guest Post: Clarity is king – the evidence that reveals the desperate need to...
Mark Morris is Head of Clear English at the Department of Health and a former speechwriter for the Health Secretary. Speech is the mirror of the soul; as a man speaks, so he is. So said Publilius...
View ArticleGDS this week: Innovating with SMEs and fast track apprentices
Speaking on the day HRH The Duke of York visited GDS, Dr. Brian Gannon of Kainos Software talks about the innovative work SMEs (Small and Medium Enterprises) are doing with government departments like...
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DVLA, we salute you
My first visit to meet DVLA in Swansea back in the summer of 2012 filled me with hope. I met Carolyn Williams MBE, who runs DVLA’s tax disc service. She showed me a wonderfully well-categorised list of...
View ArticleWeekend links – flood help, social sharing, beautiful data and more
Got a link you think we’ll love? Share it with us on Twitter: @GDSTeam A recent survey by the Department for Business Innovation and Skills suggests a sharp rise in the number of young people...
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Flood Hack: developing solutions
Last weekend, I joined a few GDS colleagues and around 200 developers, designers, emergency responders and entrepreneurs at Google Campus for a last-minute hackathon to help everyone affected by the...
View ArticleGDS this week: “It’s not dumbing down, it’s opening up”
Lorena Sutherland, content lead for Office of the Public Guardian on GOV.UK, talks about the Plain English ethos of writing for GOV.UK. Join in the conversation on Twitter @gdsteam, and don’t forget...
View ArticleRed lines for IT procurement
In January, the government published some ‘red lines’ for IT contracts. At the time, Bill Crothers, the government Chief Procurement Officer, described the reasoning behind them. These rules apply to...
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The end of the beginning for GOV.UK
A project team in GDS is working to make sure GOV.UK can meet the needs of all its users, including specialists and professionals, when it becomes a fully-realised “single domain for government” later...
View ArticleWhat kind of things do people ask?
Once in a while we like to raise a flag to highlight the work of the teams in GDS and show how we work. This week Operations Manager Albert Massa tells us how the GOV.UK Helpdesk team helps users get...
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