alpha.gov.uk
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- raf
Alpha.gov.uk is an experimental prototype (an 'alpha') of a new, single website for UK Government, developed in line with the recommendations of Martha Lane Fox's Review.
The site is a demonstration, and whilst it's public it's not permanent and is not replacing any other website.
It's been built in three months by a small team in the Government Digital Service, part of the Cabinet Office.
- raf0
bump
- Continuity0
First thing wrong:
Putting any semblance of important navigation (News, Departments, etc) in the footer, and not in the header. That was just a really dumb thing to do.
- ukit0
Pretty bad IMO. The giant text and extra vertical space seems intended to give it that "usable" feel, but is this really a usable design for a big, data heavy site with lots of information?
The enormous search bar is a good example - clearly they figured the most "user friendly" thing would be a massive search box that takes up half the screen and includes some patronizing text about what you can search for. It seems like all style and no substance.
- zr0
So it's a shiny new thing with acres of redundancy but no apparent plans to replace any of the thousands of other UKgov websites.
- zr0
Martha Lane Fox's recommendations were primarily about centralising functionality and content in one online property, namely directgov. This doesn't look like it's aligned with those ideas at all, more of an excuse to use text-shadows and rounded corners.
- lowimpakt0
i quite like the order of the navigation.
most people don't care about departments etc.. they need/want content that matters to them.