What we’ve been working on since the last update, and what we plan to do next.
What we’ve done since 13 November
Running and supporting GOV.UK
To keep GOV.UK accurate, available and secure, and to meet the most pressing needs of users, we’ve:
- added a redirect from the Consulate General in Denver to the British Embassy in Washington
- improved the content on local transaction pages to make it clearer for users
- we've made the error messages on local transaction pages more specific when postcodes aren't recognised
- helped HMRC to introduce iforms to help users update their details online
- worked on user journeys to HMRC's personal tax account
Improving GOV.UK
Things we’ve done to improve GOV.UK in relation to the missions on our roadmap:
- investigating (or 'spiking') each format the core formats team are responsible for migrating, to discover any complexities that could be a problem when moving each format
- migrated our Whitehall Publisher to use version 2 of the publishing-api, which also means ‘case studies’ is the first format to be migrated to Phase 1
- started moving Specialist Publisher to the Phase 2 architecture
- removed incorrect service links from our GOV.UK database so users are sent to the correct local government sites when using a local transaction page
- following the education theme kick off meeting we've started the early years sub-theme
- made good progress with the early years sub-theme inventories and now working with the relevant teams to audit their content. During this process we've been identifying ways of automating the initial content inventory work, so that we can speed up the pace for the next sub-themes
- been user researching the tagging workflow prototype with MoJ and MHRA
To meet the needs of the people who use the GOV.UK publishing tools, and our other colleagues across government, we’ve also:
- changed the GOV.UK survey link to go to a different survey for 2 days next week, so the insight and performance team can see which is more effective
- implemented tracking on the postcode lookup on local transaction pages so that we can see how often users are making unsuccessful journeys
- cleaned up the code in 2-step verification after the mandatory go-live date
To keep our technology stable and up-to-date, and to improve our ability to support users in future, we’ve:
- revisited event logging in Signon for all user actions in the 2-step verification process - so that it’s more maintainable when changes are made to Signon in the future
- upgraded ruby and rails for govuk_need_api
- started to migrate applications from using an out-of-date way of identifying local councils (SNAC codes) to using a current standard (GSS codes)
- upgraded imminence finder to use a modern version of rails
- worked with local authorities to find out how users are making journeys between GOV.UK and local authority websites
Things we plan to do next
In the next 2 to 3 weeks we expect to:
- begin migrating the least complex formats to the ‘new world’
- finishing off spikes
- finish off the Write API work
- finish importing content from the content store to the Publishing API
- complete the last parts of HMCTS transition
As always, if any of this is unclear, or if you have feedback on whether we’re prioritising the right stuff, please do comment on this post to let us know.
Jack Church provides Programme Support for GOV.UK. Keep in touch: subscribe to email alerts from this blog.
If this kind of work appeals to you, take a look at Working for GDS – we’re usually in search of talented people to come and join the team.
