Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes: a plain JSON endpoint with no authentication! It's the perfect way of exposing this kind of data.
I wonder how the backend works... Is it a microservice which queries over a globally distributed 'bank holidays' database, which has a frontend for some admin to add/remove bank holidays, and perhaps a custom approval workflow to approve/deny bank holidays, and maybe a system to make new bank holidays 'go live' on a certain date/time? Or is it just a static file someone wrote in vim and checked into git which got hos…
We’re opening up access to Gov.uk forms
81–90 of 195 posts
Re: We’re opening up access to Gov.uk forms
#82One niggle I have is the departments’ over-use of forms (from my perspective) in employing the ‘landing page’ pattern. E.g. if you search ‘DVLA vehicle information’, you will land on this page https://www.gov.uk/get-vehicle-information-from-dvla and you have to click ‘Start Now’ to get the page you actually wanted. The same is for logging in to HMRC Personal Tax I’d like the actual form I want on the same page
The fact the forms load so fast makes this less of a problem.
If the form took 10 seconds to load after clicking 'start now', I'd be more frustrated.
Re: We’re opening up access to Gov.uk forms
#83Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes: a plain JSON endpoint with no authentication! It's the perfect way of exposing this kind of data.
I wonder how the backend works... Is it a microservice which queries over a globally distributed 'bank holidays' database, which has a frontend for some admin to add/remove bank holidays, and perhaps a custom approval workflow to approve/deny bank holidays, and maybe a system to make new bank holidays 'go live' on a certain date/time? Or is it just a static file someone wrote in vim and checked into git which got hos…
[deleted]
Re: We’re opening up access to Gov.uk forms
#84Earlier quoted context omitted.
> No frills or silly scroll jacking animations plus javascript hogging contraptions that we see in almost all websites these days. Still the cookie warnings though :-( I've just visited on my phone the forms page linked in the title, and the first thing that greeted me was a full-screen page-blocking dialog with some cookie nonsense. You can't interact with the contents of the page until you decide how you feel about…
It's a legal requirement
But the size and intrusiveness of the notification are not.
At least it doesn't reload the page or have a stupid spinner when you click accept.
Re: We’re opening up access to Gov.uk forms
#85Earlier quoted context omitted.
Hoorah to that! We are lucky to have wonderful .gov services; highly available, accessible, frictionless, simple, informative, well written and bullshit-free. Maybe the best online central government services in the world - though I hear Estonia are a contender too. However I live in perpetual fear that at any moment some corrupt minister will do a deal with Microsoft and the Devil. Out will go plain HTML and common…
Umm, GOV.UK uses Google Analytics, Fastly CDN, AWS containers, and I believe is developing an app. (I worked at GDS until two years ago.)
gov.uk is not a monolith, different departments can make different decisions. There is no mandate for AWS containers or Fastly CDN.
Re: We’re opening up access to Gov.uk forms
#86Earlier quoted context omitted.
> This is how internet services should look like. Yes, definitely. I've called UX designers out a couple times on the aesthetical complexity of their designs: if you award GOV.UK's quality a prize [0], why don't you mimic them instead of Google? [0] https://www.gov.uk/government/news/govuk-wins-design-of-the-...
The GOVUK deliberately bare branding serves a purpose similar to the old Tesco Value branding: to make it look austere. If it looked luxurious people would be more likely to complain about taxpayer's money being wasted.
Companies need branding because they're trying to stand out from the crowd. To be distinctive and memorable, so you think of them and trust them when making buying decisions.
Governments generally don't have that requirement. So GDS doesn't need fancy branding and other concerns can take priority. It's remarkably refreshing.
It would have been so easy to just cargo-cult whatever is fashionable in the private sector. It's kinda miraculous they didn't. A mark of thoughtful, self-confident professionals. Bravo!
Re: We’re opening up access to Gov.uk forms
#87Earlier quoted context omitted.
> This is how internet services should look like. Yes, definitely. I've called UX designers out a couple times on the aesthetical complexity of their designs: if you award GOV.UK's quality a prize [0], why don't you mimic them instead of Google? [0] https://www.gov.uk/government/news/govuk-wins-design-of-the-...
The GOVUK deliberately bare branding serves a purpose similar to the old Tesco Value branding: to make it look austere. If it looked luxurious people would be more likely to complain about taxpayer's money being wasted.
There was actually a lot of pushback against the austere aesthetic by government ministers - they wanted fancy looking photo banners and pretty things. This was pushed back on in the name of making something functional the prioritizes users.
Re: We’re opening up access to Gov.uk forms
#88One niggle I have is the departments’ over-use of forms (from my perspective) in employing the ‘landing page’ pattern. E.g. if you search ‘DVLA vehicle information’, you will land on this page https://www.gov.uk/get-vehicle-information-from-dvla and you have to click ‘Start Now’ to get the page you actually wanted. The same is for logging in to HMRC Personal Tax I’d like the actual form I want on the same page
The fact the forms load so fast makes this less of a problem. If the form took 10 seconds to load after clicking 'start now', I'd be more frustrated.
Definitely mitigates it. For me though it’s still an annoyance
Re: We’re opening up access to Gov.uk forms
#89Earlier quoted context omitted.
I wonder how the backend works... Is it a microservice which queries over a globally distributed 'bank holidays' database, which has a frontend for some admin to add/remove bank holidays, and perhaps a custom approval workflow to approve/deny bank holidays, and maybe a system to make new bank holidays 'go live' on a certain date/time? Or is it just a static file someone wrote in vim and checked into git which got hos…
https://github.com/alphagov/calendars/blob/master/README.md
It's a static file manually written (and slightly post processed).
Re: We’re opening up access to Gov.uk forms
#90Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sure, but why use google analytics? There are better trackers for this kind of thing that don't need cookies and can be self-hosted.
Could you recommend some alternatives to Google Analytics? I am developing a plugin for Photoshop using UXP, and I have been unable to integrate it with GA.
Plausible seems like a fine choice for simple cases. It is oriented at websites, but you can send events directly to the API: https://plausible.io/docs/events-api
It is self-hostable, too. https://github.com/plausible/hosting