Manchester City Council • Hacker News Board

Re: Manchester City Council

#31

Post by jerguismi » Thu, May 02, 2013, 11:45 AM UTC

benrmatthews wrote: post #25

Looking past the knee-jerk reaction to "this design looks expensive", would love to see how the Manchester Council site performs from a service design perspective. How do local residents use the site? Can they find what they need quickly and easily, from both a desktop and a mobile? I'm betting yes, and the cost saved (in terms of time, frustration and maybe money) over a poorly designed yet inexpensive-looking site…

I'm not sure of that all. First of all, is the contect well indexed for search engines? At first glance, doesn't look like it is.

When I need information related to goverment services, first thing where I look are search engines.

Re: Manchester City Council

#32

Post by yen223 » Thu, May 02, 2013, 11:47 AM UTC

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.

You want government websites to look like a domain-squatter's page: https://www.gov.uk/ ?

Re: Manchester City Council

#33

Post by EliRivers » Thu, May 02, 2013, 11:48 AM UTC

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.

I pay taxes and I want government sites that are easy to navigate and efficiently designed. Black text on white background does not meet my requirements. This design - which I bet puts over 50% of user requirements in those eight simple pictures at the top - meets my requirements.

A page full of black text on a white background? Sounds like you're on some kind of ideological trip.

Re: Manchester City Council

#34

Post by jenskanis » Thu, May 02, 2013, 11:50 AM UTC

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.

I fully agree!

Re: Manchester City Council

#35

Post by PhilipA » Thu, May 02, 2013, 11:52 AM UTC

Great design.

I don't know the rules in the UK, but shouldn't the site work without JavaScript enabled (For the visually impaired)?

Re: Manchester City Council

#36

Post by ronaldx » Thu, May 02, 2013, 11:53 AM UTC

What I typically go to a council website to do: find out the cost of council tax in band D in 2013-14.

I am still clicking around... can anyone find it, I wonder?

Re: Manchester City Council

#37

Post by PhilipA » Thu, May 02, 2013, 11:53 AM UTC

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.

Never underestimate the competition between municipalities, which are also fought on the web.

Re: Manchester City Council

#38

Post by adaml_623 » Thu, May 02, 2013, 11:53 AM UTC

I'm not sure the accessibility is 100% correct. I think you should be able to use the tab key to get to the links but tabbing skips the top row of icons... Which aren't technically hyperlinks I suppose..

Re: Manchester City Council

#39

Post by laumars » Thu, May 02, 2013, 11:54 AM UTC

blowski wrote: post #16

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.

Why should public services be ugly?

Why do people insist that services which exist purely for quick searching of information have to be design-orientated and pretty?

I hear the same arguments about developer sites (eg PHP manual) but frankly I prefer layouts with an emphasis on conveying content rather than watering down that content behind a wall of epic sized fonts, fading effects and huge scrollable areas.

There's a time and place for each design choice, but government sites aren't there to look pretty, they're there for reference. And while it's entirely possible to have a such a layout that isn't ugly, in this instance I think the site has gone the other way (form over function) - so I'd sooner see be faced with an ugly site.

NB this is coming from a dyslexic who equally hates being presented with walls of text.

Re: Manchester City Council

#40

Post by stmchn » Thu, May 02, 2013, 11:55 AM UTC

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.

Have you seen the state of some government websites today? Sure they're "minimal" (often not, sometimes they're just plain ugly) but almost always difficult to navigate. You underestimate how difficult it is to organize information-dense government websites. I think people will ultimately get more value out of a well designed site.