Notes

Open For Public Testing: Gov.uk Service Portal

Opens Gov.uk Service Portal for Public Testing



A website that aims at bringing together all government services under a single URL has been launched as a trial.



Thegov.ukproject, which is expected to launch in full later this year, has a budget of PS1.7m.



Online government services are available on multiple domains and are managed by different teams.



According to the government, bringing together services in this manner could help save up to PS50m each year.



This savings is believed to be due to operational savings, such as "removing the costs associated with infrastructure investment and software licences".



However, when contacted by the BBC, the Cabinet Office could not give specific details over where those savings would be made.



The site uses a search engine-like interface to link together the vast array of government websites.



Users have beeninvited to test the new website and report any bugs or usability issues.



The website warns that although gov.uk is functionally complete, some aspects could be misleading or inaccurate while it is still in beta.



"Simple to use"



The Cabinet Office stated to BBC that gov.uk would be fully released after extensive user testing had been completed.



A decision over what will happen to the government's existing portal -directgov- has not yet been made.



"Digital public services should be easy to find and simple to use," said Francis Maude, Minister for the Cabinet Office, in a press release.



"The beta-release of a single domain is one step closer toward this goal.



"Our approach has changed. IT needs to be commissioned and rented, not bought in long-term contracts that are expensive and long-term.



"We are embracing new, cloud-based start-ups and enterprise companies - this will bring benefits for small- and medium-sized enterprises here in the UK and so contribute to growth."



'Pretty looking icon.



Martha Lane Fox, UK's "digital champion", has welcomed the revamp. She was asked to find ways for more people to use the internet.



"The beta release of gov.uk is a fantastic milestone in this government's ambition to become a digital world leader and dramatically change the focus of public service delivery onto the end user," she said.



Geoff McCormick from TheAlloy, a UK-based design firm, stated that the revamp did not solve any existing problems.



He said that "The new gov.uk web site is an improvement on direct.gov, but the bar wasn’t too high in its first place," he stated to BBC.



"Once you have navigated away from the front page, it is back to business as usual - the same information architecture, but with a 'pretty looking icon' next to it.



They don't make navigation any easier."



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Gov.uk



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