Jul 29
We exist to make public services digital by default, and we are relentlessly focused on user needs.
At the moment, we are bringing together various strands of Government digital activity into one function in order to drive up quality and consistency of user experience. Please do take some time to review our projects.
Jul 29
So then, how did the experiment go? First, let’s remind ourselves of the prototype’s primary objectives
- To test, in public, a prototype of a new, single UK Government website.
- To design & build a UK Government website using open, agile, multi-disciplinary product development techniques and technologies, shaped by an obsession with meeting user needs.
Directgov was launched in April 2004 to allow people to access public services and government information in a single place. We know that people care little about the structures of government and do not want to go searching around the internet so the original aim of Directgov was to join up services online.
Welcome to the new home of the Digital Engagement team blog within the Government Digital Service. Read more about Digital Engagement
This is the first delivery product from the Government Digital Service (GDS) using Skunkworks techniques to provide an agile delivery and SME engagement capability for the public sector: e-petitions is a product of that approach in practice:
It was developed using agile techniques which allowed us to complete the project within 8 weeks – including procurement, assembly of the team, development, hosting provisioning and deployment – ensuring we met all the standards and practices we needed and wanted to along the way.
Read more about e-petitions
Government ICT has gained the reputation for being about massive projects, with very long time scales, very high costs and being primarily delivered by a small number of very big suppliers.
There are an estimated 9.2 million adults in the UK who have never used the internet; many of these are among the more vulnerable and disadvantaged in our society including:
