From user needs to content - what’s the story?
We’ve already written about how we’ve worked to identify user needs for GOV.UK, so now I’d like to explain a bit more about what happens next - how does a need become published content or a tool on the site?
This week at GDS
...digital landscape for publication, drawing out the implications and thinking about how we release it. The Inside Government team released their detailed guidance format - unleashing 412 detailed guides from...
GOV.UK - One day in
GOV.UK is now into its second day as the new place to find government services and information, and I’d like to share some highlights from our first 24 hours.
Why GOV.UK matters: A platform for a digital Government
On Wednesday October 17th 2012, our new digital service www.gov.uk moved out of public beta development to replace the two main government websites, Directgov and Business Link. It is the...
Meeting the needs of businesses
...to Business Link, three main categories of user need emerged. What businesses are looking for Many people thinking about starting a business find their way to the Business Link website...
The software we've used to build GOV.UK
We’ve relied on a lot of software to help us build GOV.UK. From tracking the work we need to do in each sprint to managing the logs produced on our servers, we couldn’t build it without using tools that a …
GOV.UK – The start of a new way of delivering public services
...requirements quickly and effectively. It has been built the way Amazon built Amazon, and in the way that BA transformed their online business, by being agile, iterative and focused on...
Directgov: a quiet history
If you search for Directgov on Wikipedia, or ever happen to browse through our press releases, you’ll see a version of our history that’s based pretty much around landmark achievements and major events. And that’s fine. We are one of …
APIs for all
Update: we've blogged more recently about the current state of APIs on GOV.UK. Last week I talked about GOV.UK's APIs and how we use them to build and monitor the site. Now it's time to say a little more about …
This week at GDS
...the Development team switched to 'skirmish' mode this week. This means that the team is available to work on bugs and tweaks as they come up, and in the last...
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Be part of the transformation
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Government Digital and Data
Download the GOV.UK App
The GOV.UK app went live in public beta in July 2025. Find out how to download it for free on GOV.UK.