Former Hypenotic team member/perennial Hypenotic community member Jorge sent over a site I can’t get enough of.
The British Government is moving their communications strategy into the 21st century and it looks they’re doing everything right. If it wouldn’t be too much to ask, I think everyone who commissions web design should steal the tenets of their ”Government Digital Service Design Principles”.
I haven’t seen such amazing clarity in web design principles since Patrick J. Lynch and Sarah Horton’s ”Web Style Guide” (now in it’s 3rd edition)
What’s so great about it?
To start, there’s a pop up warning that explains to first time visitors that the digital design guidelines are publicly available as an ALPHA release, not as “to-don’t” list, but for inspiration and education. They want to let visitors know that:
- The site and methodology are a work in progress and will be iterated on.
- Websites are not an end in themselves, they’re a way for prospective site users (people) to fulfill their needs
That a formal institution most often associated with bureaucracy is publicly releasing something by definition unfinished is a heretical act that will surely be whispered about by cultures trained to put their best foot forward always. But the web is changing all the time, and ever more rapidly. If the medium is fluid, shouldn’t the messages be?
The inspiration is also manifest in the site’s own simple, accessible, even inviting interface. There’s plenty of negative space (space between page elements) to make people feel like there’s no hurry here (“Keep calm…”), no hidden tricks that only the cognoscenti will understand. Good design is for everyone.
The website is also a boon for Designers, who can use it help turn clients into partners. While it can come pretty naturally for designers to see and solve other people’s communications problems, we’re notoriously our own worst clients. Since we can always think of ways to improve, getting our own work out the door is hard. With the insight our clients can pick up from this site, we can both be better collaborators.
Design is as much an approach–a mindset, as it is a process. And the Gov.UK Design Principles articulate the tenets of this approach in way that at once democratizes great design while rewarding it’s practitioners. Anyone can benefit from knowing these principles. And understanding the tenets makes it a lot easier for the lay person to spot professionals.
There will still be plenty of unlearning for people to do. We’ve been conditioned to think of websites as modern versions of traditional marketing items like brochures.
And of course, the system that pays for their development is still largely framed by the wrong measures, the wrong motivations:
“my dept needs real estate on the front page”
or
“I’ve already sold these banners”
Clearly, these objectives are misguided in a system that puts the visitor’s needs at the centre.
Often, we’re not spending our own money when designing websites, and accountability means a very literal form of short term return on investment that ends up being a “lose/lose” for all parties. The hard part is remembering we’re not designing screens, we’re designing experiences. For people. The hard part is manifest in the up front thinking and planning. So that’s what should be done. And paid for.
And there will still be plenty of hand-holding to help people address the perceptual challenges of each tenet. Designing user experiences is almost uniformly counterintuitive for traditional marketers. But I hope this site will be the starting point of many great conversations and even more subtle changes in web site design for years to come.
I could go on about the site all day, but maybe it’d be better if we regroup after you’ve had a look at it?
