Blog

In my last blog post I looked at web form design and layout best practices to improve usability. In this post I’m going to look at what you should consider when adding fields and labels to your web form. Offer friendly inline validation Traditionally, form…

In my previous blog posts I discussed some of the best practices for designing web forms and then expanded on form fields and labels. In this post I’m going to look at what you can do when you have to create a long or complex…

Good forms create great experiences. Today, online forms are a key touchpoint between the user and an organisation. Many of us use forms every day – registering on a website, buying something online, or completing an application form. In this blog post I’ll discuss some…

January 21st marked the 10th year of UKGovCamp held at the National Audit office. A free “unconference” with over 600 people entering a lottery for tickets. The lucky 200 who were selected got together to launch their own discussions around digital in the public sector….

Have you ever worked on a digital project that’s “gone wrong”? Perhaps a late launch, a blown budget, or a service which, in the end, didn’t actually do what users wanted. Although these kind of issues tend to appear towards the end of a project,…

Originally posted on the Government as a Platform blog. In my first post I spoke about the Trade Tariff which was the first service to migrate to the PaaS. During the migration we captured lessons learned so we could share them with our GDS colleagues and…

Originally posted on the Government as a Platform blog. The GOV.UK Trade Tariff is a service people can use to find licences, duty and VAT rates for goods they want to import or export. In July, the Trade Tariff became the first service to migrate to the UK Government…

Prototyping websites and apps is one of the key skills of a UX practitioner. We rely on our prototypes to save valuable time and avoid building real features that are not user-centred. There is still a risk, however, that a lot of time is spent…

Back in 2012 we built the Trade Tariff digital service for Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC). The service allows people to look up key information on importing and exporting different types of goods. HMRC recently asked us to run a “rediscovery” for the service. We…