GOV.UK Transition Workshop
Government Digital Service
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GOV.UK
GOV.UK is an online service for
citizens and businesses where the
content is:
* clearer
* simpler
* faster
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GOV.UK
GOV.UK has won awards for both its
design and its writing style.
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“… as neat and functional as the London Underground
map.”
– Evening Standard
“…perhaps I'd seen a glimpse of the future.”
– BBC Technology News
“The new Gov.uk website aims to combine all the UK
Government's websites into a single site, saving millions of
pounds in the process.”
– Gizmodo
“Government Digital Service's attempt to compile all the
UK's governmental pages and web services in a
convenient format …”
– Wired
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How does GOV.UK
benefit users?
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All government information is in 1 place
Consistent and easy way to find and
understand information
Content is focused on addressing
user needs
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How does GOV.UK
benefit you?
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Easy-to-use publishing tool
Cost and time savings
The most cutting edge technology
Learning from across government
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Don’t just take my
word for it …
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transition.blog.gov.uk
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Focus on user needs
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Content published on GOV.UK must be
driven by an analysis of user needs.
So that people can find the information
they want and complete tasks easily.
Example:
As a citizen or business
I want to find information about local risks of flooding
So that I can take necessary actions
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It's still your content
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GOV.UK is a platform for you to publish
on.
Your content must adhere to the style
guide, but it is still your content.
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Update on progress
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✗
July
The target transition date is April
2014.
2014
We have prioritised all the agencies to
be transitioned, and this is reviewed
every 2 weeks.
We have projected our cycle goals for
each stage.
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Transition process
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Programme
Stages
Discovery
User needs
Content analysis,
build and publish
Redirect and
decommission
Business as usual
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Cycle goals
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S
M
L
Discovery
1 week
1 week
1 week
User needs
6 weeks
6.5 weeks
7 weeks
Content analysis,
build and publish
4 weeks
8 weeks
12 weeks
Redirect and
decommission
1 week
2 weeks
3 weeks
∞
∞
Business as usual
∞
12 wks
17.5 wks
22 wks
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We are measuring
cycles to see how
we’re tracking against
our goals
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We’ll measure time elapsed
between queued & done for
each stage.
User needs
Queued
9/9/2013
Done
16/9/2013
= 1 week
We’ll get average cycle
times overall, per
department & per size
category (SML).
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All this info will be
available on a
dashboard for each
Department
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Content
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Include content that...
• meets a user need
• government has a statutory obligation to publish
(eg transparency data, consultations)
• is guidance that helps people comply with the law
(not general advice provided by third parties)
• explains the purpose of the organisation (eg About
us, Our governance)
• is or relates to a government policy
• complies with the archiving timeframes
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Content types
• Corporate information pages (eg About us, Publication
scheme, Our governance)
• Announcements (eg news, speeches, press releases)
• Publications (eg guidance, research, corporate reports,
FOI, statistics)
• Detailed guidance
• Consultations
• Policy and policy detail pages
• Mainstream content (eg Smart answers)
• Potential new content types
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Style
Text should be:
• written in plain English - avoid jargon and cliches
• focused on the user need and user journey
• concise, active and direct
• in the correct content format
• written with basic SEO principles in mind
* Know the GOV.UK style guide
* GDS does spot check content for style and quality
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What next
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Things you can be doing now:
Background reading
Installing Google Analytics
Understanding the style guide
Review, archive and update your content
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Any questions
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Stay up to date with GOV.UK
transition:
transition.blog.gov.uk
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