Manchester City Council • Hacker News Board

Re: Manchester City Council

#231

Post by desas » Fri, May 03, 2013, 10:07 PM UTC

6d0debc071 wrote: post #188

EGreg wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why don't governments design sites with multiple themes for multiple targets? And speaking of being accessible ... why do their sites have so much small text? No, I think government agencies could make better use of fonts and sizes, at least.

> Why don't governments design sites with multiple themes for multiple targets? http://www.manchester.gov.uk/accessibility/settings Really though, the chances that tertiary government - like the ones who manage a city - keep a website designer on staff seem low. What would he do the other 360 days of the year? If they want to buy something like that, chances are it has to go out to tender. IT departments in non-IT fi…

Would you want to be the person working for that organisation?

Working for one council means working for a committee, working for multiple is probably working for a committee of committees.

Decentralisation and out-sourcing are central words for the public society. The idea of bringing this in-house and sharing between other councils is probably a couple of pay-grades above the person on the comms team who is in charge of the website. The person in charge of the website may not even be a "technical" person and have time to think of all the cool possibilities.

MySociety make fixmystreet for councils (the open source fixmystreet.com but hooked into councils existing systems + extra reporting), I'm sure there are plenty of private companies making these things and selling them.

Re: Manchester City Council

#232

Post by desas » Fri, May 03, 2013, 10:18 PM UTC

simonswords82 wrote: post #183

It would surely be better if all government websites adhered to a predefined structure, layout and general look/feel standard.

It's interesting to see many local government websites now have a section of their website called "do it online" with sub-headings of "pay it online", "report it online", "request it online". It all seems a bit weird to me but there's obviously some communication channel.

Re: Manchester City Council

#233

Post by meerita » Sun, May 05, 2013, 1:25 PM UTC

droopyEyelids wrote: post #223

meerita wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

We do have troubles discussing things. Unfortunately, the world is so complicated that we can't make an informed decision based on speech/writing alone, and verification of achievements is one of the easiest and most accurate ways to judge credibility.

We should give opinions based on evidence, proven evidence. The rest are just, personal viewpoints who doesn't care what you prove. I try always to avoid these discussions, but sometimes i feel is a bit unfair to bring up the "show me your X card, sir" to talk about something.

Re: Manchester City Council

#234

Post by EnderMB » Tue, May 07, 2013, 8:01 AM UTC

marknutter wrote: post #85

EnderMB wrote: post #42

I don't mind a bit of design, as long as the design is fully functional for EVERYONE that needs to use it. Yes, that means people using older browsers/machines, users with restricted vision, anyone that requires access to a council website, or requires information about council services. On IE7, this website works, but it takes a very long time to load, probably because the home page is 1MB, with just under 950k of t…

Yes, but if the site is designed poorly then the user will spend as much time trying to figure out how to navigate around it than they would waiting for this modern version to download. I'm not saying the new one is easier to use, but you get my point.

A basic site doesn't have to be designed poorly. My opposition is against design for the sake of designing, and in turn code for code's sake. A page doesn't always need to be loaded to the brim with JavaScript, and a home page doesn't always need a slider.

A good designer will create the bare minimum for a functional site, and a good developer will use the best tools for the job, instead of the tools that everyone else uses.