“Revolution, not evolution” is GOV.UK‘s self-confessed approach to digital strategy and transformation. Some two years ago, the UK Government began making efforts to completely transform their digital presence – to take existing, hard to navigate services and bring them under one roof; making access to government information much easier, tidier, and more consistent. To make public services ‘digital by default’.
To do it, the UK Government created their own ‘Government Digital Service’ (GDS) – a team of people in-house tasked with revitalising the government’s digital strategy. The results have been amazing and inspiring – and here’s some of the brilliant ways the GDS handled such a mammoth task.
1. Give people what they want…
“Start with needs. User needs, not government needs” – the GDS design principle number one. A feature paramount to the entire presentation and development of government’s new digital strategy, and one that they continue to follow.
“People will [arrive at a page] after searching for VAT rates. The answer most people are after is 20%, so we’ve made that the largest, clearest piece of information on the page.”
2. But don’t give them too much.
A large part of transforming the Government’s existing digital presence meant refining and more surprisingly reducing the amount of information held on some digital assets.
“By trying to do less, and deciding what’s the most important thing on the page before you start designing, you’ll end up with simpler and clearer designs. Government should only do what only government can do, so while it’s right we should provide information about VAT, it’s not necessary for us to provide information about keeping bees.”
3. Be consistent…
GOV.UK is the merging of 331 agencies and public bodies into one consistent digital service. 331! Although it sounds like a feat of organisation, planning and production… “we built the alpha [1st iteration] in about 10 weeks.”
By working within small teams of ‘passionate developers, designers, content people and more’ – GOV.UK created an open work environment where users are truly at the core of everything the GDS do. From it, the user experience of a site like GOV.UK is so far unsurpassed for such a huge wealth of information.
4. But don’t go in all-guns-blazing. (At least, not at first).
“We build a minimum viable product quickly, then iterate wildly” – another design principle from the GDS which works so perfectly for any sort of project. Here at Crowd, we emphasise that our work isn’t to just ‘create a website’ and then be done with it – the web is growing so rapidly that we simply can’t create a ‘timeless’ web design – such a thing isn’t possible. What we can do, however, is to monitor, learn what users are doing, and follow User Interface/User Experience trends to create constantly evolving web services that ultimately remain a joy to use.
“Iteration reduces risk. It makes big failures unlikely and turns small failures into lessons. This is the core advantage of digital: we’re not building bridges — things can be undone” – this attitude is so important to how we should all think about the web.
Finally, and most importantly…
5. Be vulnerable.
Whether you’re thinking as a business or as an individual, using vulnerability to drive change is one of the most powerful and effective ways of creating change. By tearing their existing services apart, by being frank and honest with themselves, and by approaching the new digital services as a breath of fresh air, GOV.UK’s team has created a service that is truly worthy of the label ‘revolutionary’.
These feats are not impossible. If the entire UK Government can do it, such innovative and exciting products can certainly be created in Guernsey. Be a part of the communities you love, and great things can happen.