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Manchester City Council

manchester.gov.uk

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Re: Manchester City Council

#191

Post by meerita »

larrydavid wrote: post #177
hglaser wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What a predictable top comment for a Hacker News thread. :( A government website showcases a design that is leaps and bounds ahead of any other government site we can think of , and HN's top comment casually dismisses it. To rewrite something you said: "This is the perfect example of everything wrong with [HN comments]." I, for one, am floored that someone in city government was able to rise above the bureaucracy and…

It's a shame you're being downvoted, hopefully constructive feed back will eventually bubble to the top. There was a similar submission yesterday where this occurred. Clearly there are a group of elite web designers, UI and UX specialists that parade this site, who, unsurprisingly, have empty profiles. How else are we supposed to see their portfolio of exceptional work so we know what to aspire to?

This is a fallacy. If you need to show something to prove or give an opinion or a reason about 2+2=4 then we will have troubles to discuss on anything.

You cannot use argumentum ad hominem to this point. If people has to shown their portfolios or other stuff to prove their skillmanship you're only wasting time and finding on the wrong place to prove your points, since those designs may not apply or be used as a good example to counterattack the main point here.

Re: Manchester City Council

#192

Post by meerita »

ldh wrote: post #121
megablast wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not quite sure what your point is? Government websites are not there to show of designers ability, they should be simple.

I'd argue that almost no sites should exist to show off designers' skills. The trick is taking various (often competing) requirements and producing a site that seems simple.

Isn't that website simple? Jesus, check this one http://www.bcn.cat/ is from Barcelona city, you will understand when something was designed simple and when was made like the rest of the 99%.

That website is simpler than the rest, tell me how you will reduce the noise.

Re: Manchester City Council

#193

Post by aendruk »

mkopinsky wrote: post #170

While in general I approve of the policy here of renaming posts to match the title of the page, the change here done by the mods (to simply "Manchester City Council") makes the whole discussion make no sense. (The original title was "How government sites should be designed".)

This wouldn't have happened if the original submission had followed the site guidelines[1]:

> If you want to add initial commentary on the link, write a blog post about it and submit that instead.

I view it as similar to Wikipedia's "no original research" policy.

[1]: http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Re: Manchester City Council

#194

Post by jakejake »

meerita wrote: post #191
larrydavid wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a shame you're being downvoted, hopefully constructive feed back will eventually bubble to the top. There was a similar submission yesterday where this occurred. Clearly there are a group of elite web designers, UI and UX specialists that parade this site, who, unsurprisingly, have empty profiles. How else are we supposed to see their portfolio of exceptional work so we know what to aspire to?

This is a fallacy. If you need to show something to prove or give an opinion or a reason about 2+2=4 then we will have troubles to discuss on anything. You cannot use argumentum ad hominem to this point. If people has to shown their portfolios or other stuff to prove their skillmanship you're only wasting time and finding on the wrong place to prove your points, since those designs may not apply or be used as a good…

Well, it is actually an interesting idea. I personally am not a designer yet I feel ok offering my criticism of a design.

Re: Manchester City Council

#195

Post by bwang8 »

jerguismi wrote: post #11

No. Goverment web sites should be minimal design & content - black text on white background, no extra graphics. I don't want to pay taxes so that these latte-sipping designers can create cool projects.

The cost of designing a page such as this over a minimalist website is so negligible in terms of the amount the government spend and take everyday, that it is simply not necessary to nitpick. This could be just thought of as an experiment in governmental website design. I think sometimes the "people" act like the worst managers that they micro-manages and want to squeeze every penny, while missing the big picture.

Re: Manchester City Council

#197

Post by toyg »

hglaser wrote: post #169
DigitalSea wrote: post #70

I applaud the change and thinking outside of the box, but the Manchester City Council website looks like a $45 Wordpress theme off of Themeforest. The slider appears to offer no value to the site other than taking up a massive amount of room without really justifying its existence. I'm not a designer, I'm a developer and I am struggling to understand the reasoning behind that slider. While I agree that the trendy loo…

What a predictable top comment for a Hacker News thread. :( A government website showcases a design that is leaps and bounds ahead of any other government site we can think of , and HN's top comment casually dismisses it. To rewrite something you said: "This is the perfect example of everything wrong with [HN comments]." I, for one, am floored that someone in city government was able to rise above the bureaucracy and…

I'm afraid HN is getting the way Slashdot went: sarcastic über-negativity on each and every post, often by people with little or no skin in the game and no experience as real developer/entrepreneur. After all, if you have time to post early on a high-traffic site like this, you're probably not very busy building new things. I say this while being fully conscious that I'm exactly one of these time-wasting untalented hacks.

The first few months I was reading HN comments (which wasn't that long ago, just about two years, but feels like ages), I was actually feeling pumped-up and motivated to start my own biz (although I now know I'm pretty hopeless at it). These days, it feels like HN is just full of well-spoken and highly-educated stop energy.

Re: Manchester City Council

#198

Post by toyg »

dreen wrote: post #153
dan1234 wrote: post #28

I think I actually prefer http://www.gateshead.gov.uk , which is a lot less "in your face". If I go to a .gov.uk site it's because a need a specific piece of information, I don't need the design getting in the way.

In terms of Manchester's site being more "in your face" - it definitely captures the Mancurian mentality this way. But then again Gateshead is near Newcastle so its hard to argue...

Was going to say this. "Of course it's 'in your face', it's Manchester!"

This is where the council paid to erect a London Eye replica in the middle of the bloody town; a city quite proud of featuring the tallest and ugliest hotel in the land, and where the main attractions are a stadium and one of the largest shopping centre in Europe (certainly the tackiest -- think Las Vegas' Bellagio, triple the size, add "paintings" of Wayne Rooney and Winston Churchill). Mancunians are a lovely bunch, but damn don't they half-like being in-your-face.

Re: Manchester City Council

#199

Post by jonemo »

DigitalSea wrote: post #70

I applaud the change and thinking outside of the box, but the Manchester City Council website looks like a $45 Wordpress theme off of Themeforest. The slider appears to offer no value to the site other than taking up a massive amount of room without really justifying its existence. I'm not a designer, I'm a developer and I am struggling to understand the reasoning behind that slider. While I agree that the trendy loo…

> I'm not a designer, I'm a developer and I am struggling to understand the reasoning behind that slider.

I'm not a designer either, but I know that what you seem to call a "slider" is a "carousel".

Re: Manchester City Council

#200

Post by mixmax »

mkopinsky wrote: post #175
carlesfe wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the title was changed; the original one was something like "All institutional webpages should be like this one"

The original title was "How government sites should be designed".

changing it was a bad decision IMO.

Without the context this submission makes no sense at all.

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