1. GOV.UK operational briefing for front line staff
October 2012
GOV.UK Communications Team
Government Digital Service
GDS
2. 1. What GOV.UK is
2. What GOV.UK looks like
3. User Needs
4. Things you don’t need to worry about
5. Things to remember
6. Improving GOV.UK all the time
GDS
7. GOV.UK is the best place to find
government services and
information online. It is a new
website that will bring most of the
information published by the
government online to one place
and will be the starting point for all
government digital services.
GDS
8. Information on GOV.UK replaces
that on Directgov and Businesslink.
It is for citizens and businesses.
GDS
9. GOV.UK is simpler, clearer and
faster.
It is based on user needs.
GOV.UK will make interacting with
government online easier and quicker
for users, while saving time and
money for government organisations.
GDS
13. We’ve done a lot of work and
testing to make sure that the
design, tone and format of the
content on GOV.UK works better
for users.
GDS
14. Simple navigation and space to breathe
We keep the options simple and clear, and always show you where you
are on the site. The clean design simplifies rather than confuses, making
the site fast and easy to navigate
GDS
15. Clearly organised information
If you don’t find what you need straight away a ‘more like this’ menu
shows you other things we think might be useful.
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16. Information guides
Guides are groups of information that are more lengthy or complex.
Guides have "parts" on the left-hand side, allowing you to quickly
access the right information.
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17. Quick Answers
Quick answers provide concise answers to popular user questions.
Less text, more specific answers.
18. Services
Services are tools and transactional pages that enable you to
complete tasks online and interact with government. For local services
just enter your postcode and find places and services which are close
to you, such as your nearest recycling point or driving test centre.
19. Search
People begin most internet journeys with search, so we’ve
designed the site with that in mind. Searches take you straight to
the information you need.
22. It has been planned, written,
organised and designed around
what users need to get done, not
around the ways government want
them to do it - providing only the
content they need and nothing
superfluous.
GDS
23. Some of the top user needs we have
identified are;
Commodity codes and trade
tariff
Find a job Passport fees
Apply for student finance Driving theory test
Renew a passport Council tax bands
Bank holidays Child maintenance
National minimum wage Housing Benefit
Car tax Disability Living Allowance
Working Tax Credit Provisional driving license
Registering as a sole Income Support
trader Carer's allowance
Jobseeker's Allowance Contracts finder
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25. We have mapped pages from
Directgov and Businesslink onto
GOV.UK so if users are looking
for particularly content they will be
directed to relevant pages on
GOV.UK
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26. An example mapping - you can see the difference between
the page in Directgov and the page in GOV.UK.
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28. If users have saved or
“Bookmarked” pages in the past
then these links will still work - they
will be directed to GOV.UK instead
of Directgov and Businesslink.
GDS
29. If a user has followed a link to a page on
Directgov or Businesslink that is not
being reproduced on GOV.UK they will
see a message that
- Explains the changeover
- Introduces them to GOV.UK, and
- Offers them a link to the National
Archives to see the information that
used to be on the page
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30. Most people use search engines
like Google to find online
information from the government.
We have spent a lot of time making
sure that people will be able to find
GOV.UK pages via Google. They
will be sent directly to the relevant
page.
GDS
31. Transactions and some other
online services will retain Directgov
branding for some time after the
release of GOV.UK. Over time
more transactions will be
redesigned to match the GOV.UK
style. In testing transactions users
were not affected when pages
were branded differently.
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32. We have tested GOV.UK with
many types of user. We have
found that people like the site, they
can find all the information they
need and they trust the information
on GOV.UK to be from the
government.
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34. From 17 October try to send all
customers to GOV.UK and not
Directgov or Businesslink, but don’t
worry if you can’t as the mapping
will redirect them automatically.
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35. GOV.UK welcomes user feedback.
There will be a form for requests or
questions available on the site,
through a link on the homepage,
plus each page has a link incase
anything is wrong with a specific
page.
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36. GOV.UK is agile and iterative
Improvements will continue to be
made very regularly after GOV.UK
is released so we want your
feedback in order to do this.
Please speak with your Line
Manager if you have feedback.
GDS
38. Soon after the site goes fully live, every
tool and page will have a dashboard
behind it to measure how well the page
is performing in meeting user needs.
This will look at the data on the page,
user journeys, bounce rates, visits, etc.
There will be a constant feedback loop
of recommendations and data which will
enable continuous improvement of
information and services.
GDS
39. GOV.UK operational briefing for front line staff
October 2012
GOV.UK Communications Team
Government Digital Service
GDS
