Meet the content design team
If you’ve ever wondered what the difference is between a ‘content designer’ and an ‘editor’, here Holly Challenger and Beck Thompson reveal all. In the latest of our occasional films highlighting the...
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Fail them faster
Licence: Creative Commons Attribution Zach Inglis The other day, while driving along a local shortcut, I was faced with a ‘road closed’ sign and had to u-turn. Beyond the sign, there was no road where...
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Making payments more convenient and efficient
Most people have to pay government money at some point or another. For example, when you pay tax, or renew your passport, or get a new driver’s licence, or buy an environmental permit. But at the...
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Hire the head and the body will follow
Part of building government as a platform is people. We’ve talked a lot about how people in departments and GDS have worked together as part of transforming government. The last 4 years is testament...
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Building on the steel thread
As part of the work we’re doing to prepare for government as a platform, we’ve been investigating ways to help government agencies use shared platforms and data registers to build better services. One...
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Same, but different: a common international approach to digital government
A few weeks ago, we welcomed some friends from America to our office in London, members of the United States Digital Service (USDS) and 18F. Combined, their work is an approximate equivalent of what...
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Onwards!
At the end of last week I went to see my boss, John Manzoni to tell him I’m leaving government. I wanted to take a moment here to thank everyone for the tremendous help I’ve been given in the last...
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User research for government around the world
Here at GDS we are privileged to meet digital teams from around the world, and we often stay in touch well after our first meeting. We share what has worked for us - embedding researchers in teams,...
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Better services with patterns and standards
A few weeks ago I wrote a post on the design blog about what public services might look like in a world of government as a platform. In a nutshell, platforms, open data, and shared components (the...
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Mapping the border as users see it
One of our four government as a platform workstreams is called department transformation, and it’s all about breaking down invisible barriers between departments and agencies so we can improve...
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Digital take up - It’s not just channel shift
Dave Worley, a digital take-up advisor at GDS, describes how we are helping services across government to encourage users to use the digital service. Point 14 of the Digital Service Standard requires...
View ArticleKeep calm and carry on
You’ll have seen the media coverage over the past few days since Mike announced that he is leaving. Last week was a busy week sorting things out and speaking to people about what happens next. I’m...
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GDS mission - the next phase
Three months ago, when I was appointed Minister for the Cabinet Office, one of the first things I wanted to do was visit GDS. I'd worked with GDS over recent years, and I’m a huge supporter of GDS's...
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Mapping new ideas for the digital justice system
We've talked a lot about the preparation work we're doing for Government as a Platform. One of the benefits of having GDS sit at the heart of government is that we can take a cross-government view on...
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Defra's opening up its data
This image was taken using LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) technology, by shooting a laser beam down to the ground from an aircraft. LIDAR is useful for all sorts of applications, and the...
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Common Technology Services: technology is a tool, not a barrier
The technology you use to do your job should help you achieve more. When it doesn’t it’s frustrating. That’s true for the wide variety of users who come into contact with government technology, from...
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Gov, where’s my stuff?
We want to see how platforms can improve the way people communicate with government. As part of this, we’re starting discovery work on status tracking and notifications. Put simply, we want to improve...
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Registers: authoritative lists you can trust
We’ve mentioned registers a few times on this blog, most recently in relation to the work of the Land Registry building on the steel thread, the brilliant new Companies House public beta, and their...
View ArticleDigital in local government: a case study from Camden Council
There’s huge potential for digital transformation in local government as well as national government. One person with opinions on the subject is Camden Council's Chief Information Officer, John...
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Building a platform to host digital services
Right now, hosting services is one of the most time-consuming barriers for new digital services, and usually involves duplicating work done elsewhere. On the Government Platform as a Service team we’re...
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