I have recently been involved in looking at some internal digital services in the role of Digital Architect. During this process I have a mental model of the key points that I would expect in any service. These are pretty generic and I would ask them for any new service, or an old one whichRead… Read more »
I suspect that I need to explain both these terms so here goes. Microservices The word Microservices has become popular recently as short hand for a particular approach to online services. The basic idea is simple. It is that when new services are created that they are sliced up into discrete parts that can operateRead… Read more »
APIs have been around a long time. Not sure what an API is? The Next Web is worth reading on this… As ever Wikipedia has a good answer: ‘In computer programming, an application programming interface (API) specifies how some software components should interact with each other.’ Sounds straight forward, or is it? Of course asRead… Read more »
I mentioned in a previous post that we were planning to install a user survey on the NAO website. As the survey has been live for few days it is worth saying how it works. We are using SurveyMonkey which is activated for 1 in 20 visitors. We will review the frequency of this dependingRead… Read more »
There was as time when those working in digital comms in government liked to think of themselves as pioneers, dogooders, renegades, jeans wearing, pizza eating innovators; disruptors with a start up mentality. Is this still the case? Here are some reflections… What is the evidence? Govcamp the annual get together was initially a very lowRead… Read more »
What do I mean by asking ‘Does digital engagement really exist?’ As I have categorised this post under digital engagement it suggests that I believe in the concept, but lets see where this leads… I was struck last week by the comments of @betonykelly and @timolloyd from BIS (Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, England)Read… Read more »
In this series of posts about feedback so far I have been talking about some external digital services. What about internal services? Surely you want some feedback on those as well? What kind of internal digital services could be relevant? Well intranets jump to mind. So does your intranet allow colleagues to leave feedback onRead… Read more »
I wrote last week about the more automated kinds of feedback so here are some thoughts and ideas on direct user feedback. There are a number of approaches that we have followed so far: Usability testing In March we ran two days of user testing with people who use the NAO website. Many people wouldRead… Read more »
One of the current mantras for government online services is to say that they are customer focused. This is an excellent aspiration and it is becoming a standard protocol to build services around iterative user testing. However once a service is up and running how do we ensure that we are still meeting our userRead… Read more »
I recently attended an excellent event called News:rewired. As part of the event there was a speaker from Buzzfeed who highlighted their underlying principles. In particular they aim to ‘bake in the share imperative’ by creating engaging content that triggers actions such as: inspiring awe being positive surprising its readers It’s easy to be snootyRead… Read more »