MSE News: Directgov website to be replaced

patman99

I seem to remember when the JobcentrePlus website was moved to Direct.gov a lot of people complained.
Since the move (and in the last 6 months), they have added a few new features to the jobsearch facility. Hopefully the new centralised home for Govt. services will see even more customer-led improvements.

Websites migrate to new systems as the old ones become outdated and unfit for purpose. Even ebaY moved from a custom site to a Joomla-based system.
I would hazard a guess the new gov.uk site will be based on either Drupal, Joomla or Moodle rather than some antiquated hand-coded HTML-based one. This in turn will make it quick and easy to add/remove/update information without the need to hand-make every page. This will, over time, save vast amounts of money and lead to little/no downtime, as, unlike HTML sites, CSS sites using such systems as previously mentioned, can be worked-on without the need to take them offline.

Helix

patman99 wrote: »

I seem to remember when the JobcentrePlus website was moved to Direct.gov a lot of people complained.
Since the move (and in the last 6 months), they have added a few new features to the jobsearch facility. Hopefully the new centralised home for Govt. services will see even more customer-led improvements.

Websites migrate to new systems as the old ones become outdated and unfit for purpose. Even ebaY moved from a custom site to a Joomla-based system.
I would hazard a guess the new gov.uk site will be based on either Drupal, Joomla or Moodle rather than some antiquated hand-coded HTML-based one. This in turn will make it quick and easy to add/remove/update information without the need to hand-make every page. This will, over time, save vast amounts of money and lead to little/no downtime, as, unlike HTML sites, CSS sites using such systems as previously mentioned, can be worked-on without the need to take them offline.

They are using a custom built CMS for Gov.uk, they have even open sourced bits of it on Github. There was a blog post about it a while ago.

I very much doubt the existing Directgov site is made up of hand coded HTML pages. Just because the pages have .htm extensions doesn't mean they have been manually coded, they likely have a CMS that produces static pages. Or they could even be dynamic pages depending on how the web server is setup to process the .htm extension.

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

patman99 wrote: »

I seem to remember when the JobcentrePlus website was moved to Direct.gov a lot of people complained.
Since the move (and in the last 6 months), they have added a few new features to the jobsearch facility. Hopefully the new centralised home for Govt. services will see even more customer-led improvements.

Websites migrate to new systems as the old ones become outdated and unfit for purpose. Even ebaY moved from a custom site to a Joomla-based system.
I would hazard a guess the new gov.uk site will be based on either Drupal, Joomla or Moodle rather than some antiquated hand-coded HTML-based one. This in turn will make it quick and easy to add/remove/update information without the need to hand-make every page. This will, over time, save vast amounts of money and lead to little/no downtime, as, unlike HTML sites, CSS sites using such systems as previously mentioned, can be worked-on without the need to take them offline.

Dear Lord, not Moodle.

irrelevant

I did a quick lookup on Carers' allowance ... god help me, page after page with about one new fact on each, and flashy mouseover effects on the next page button, of all things. What next, use of the marquee tag?? Something about the CSS also caused every page to display then adjust the font afterwards, causing a very odd effect. (Opera 11.64) It definitely feels "dumbed down" from direct.gov.uk which has always felt like it was there to get the information to you in the most straightforward way possible.

RazWaz

Bloody hell, it looks like a domain park at first glance. Hideous design.

mo786uk

I dont think its a waste of money if done properly. anyone who worksi n public services know that IT systems are needed to replace the descresing numbers. anything that can be autmated, and as someone has sugegsted, where call centres can be removed and peopel told to go to a website will be taken advantage of.

I like the way it displays topical info - for exmaple the current page tells you when the clocks change and the bank holiday page tells you employers dont HAVE to give you time off .

mo786uk

I have just had a play around with it.

What I think it does quite well is that it answers commonly asked quetsions quite well withoutforcing people to go aspecific page. Some of the info is a bit TOO basic for my liking but I can see where they are going with it.

Blackpool_Saver

the only link that opens to a page with NO TEXT is the disabled one !!!!!

Jeff_Bridges_hair

Blackpool_Saver wrote: »

the only link that opens to a page with NO TEXT is the disabled one !!!!!

Which we discovered in post #8 and subsequent gags and sane reasoning in the following posts afterwards

giraffe69

It is surprising that people come to the conclusion it is a waste of money without access to any of the facts(not that I have them either) but to assess whether it is worthwhile then don't you

a. see how much the redevelopment costs
b. find out if this saves tyou money when developing/updating/maintaining the site.
c. Assess the saving(if any) that comes from a reduction in other services having to be provided.
d. Assess how much it will be worth if you can develop other/better services in the next few years.

It may then prove to be a poor idea but at least that would be based on some factual assessment rather than the ranting about "better things to do with the money"