{"id":6942,"date":"2015-07-21T13:18:14","date_gmt":"2015-07-21T20:18:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/proxystudio.uxpin.com\/?p=6942"},"modified":"2020-04-29T16:09:24","modified_gmt":"2020-04-29T23:09:24","slug":"government-websites-dont-suck-heres","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uxpin.com\/studio\/blog\/government-websites-dont-suck-heres\/","title":{"rendered":"Government Websites Don’t Have to Suck \u2014 Here’s How"},"content":{"rendered":"

Photo Credit:<\/em> <\/b>David Iliff<\/a>, Creative Commons 3.0<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Is it possible for government services to be easy to use? Most of the time \u2014 not even close. But the UK Government Digital Services (GDS) team has changed that, taking home a 2013 Design of the Year award<\/a>.<\/p>\n

One of the judges even remarked, “[GOV.UK] creates a benchmark for which all international government websites can be judged on.”<\/p>\n

So why is this self-service, government site so amazing? Simple: it puts the experience of the user first. You don\u2019t need to know how the government works to get what you need.<\/p>\n

In this post, we\u2019ll take a look at our top three GOV.UK design principles used for this government site and why they\u2019ve made for the perfect user experience.<\/p>\n

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Design Principles in Action<\/b><\/h2>\n

There are 10 principles in all<\/a> that GOV.UK follows, which build upon the government\u2019s original seven digital principles.<\/a>\u00a0These include:\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Screen<\/a><\/p>\n

Source:<\/strong> GOV.UK<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

These used in combination with the Five Pillars of Interaction Design, which are outlined in the free e-book Interaction Design Best Practices<\/a>, are good guidelines for any site to follow. Touring the self-service government site, you can see all these principles at work.\u00a0<\/p>\n

1. Do the Hard Work to Make it Simple\u00a0<\/b><\/h2>\n

Many of the site\u2019s sections use self-assessment surveys, asking questions to determine where best to direct a user. There\u2019s maternity leave calculators<\/a>, and \u201cDo I need a visa\u201d quizzes<\/a>. While they could have just included a long wall of text, the GDS team took the extra step to make finding information excruciatingly simple and engaging.<\/p>\n

You can see a clear example of this in the \u201cCheck if You Need a Visa\u201d quiz. The GDS team charted out the common situations a visa seeker may encounter and guides the experience. At no point does the user need to think about more than one criteria at a time. Furthermore, the previous answers are shown at the bottom, and it\u2019s easy to go back and change an answer.<\/p>\n