User testing for beginners
At Defra, we’ve been redesigning all our guidance on GOV.UK so it better meets user needs. We’re now starting to do ‘usability testing’ to see how people use our new content so we can see where we should make further …
Defra at the INSPIRE-Geospatial World Forum 2015
DATA.GOV.UK Each year the European Commission holds a conference on the INSPIRE Directive in a different Member State. This year the conference took place at the end of May in Lisbon, Portugal, and was held in parallel with the Geospatial …
#OpenDefra
We’re posting here on the Defra digital blog some of the stories about our data, data activities and data releases. On 25 June, our Secretary of State Elizabeth Truss set out her vision for the role of open data in the future of food and farming.
The ‘flat-pack test’ for guidance
One of the dubious privileges of my suburban upbringing was watching my Dad assemble flat pack furniture on rainy Sunday afternoons. As the hours passed and the chair, barbecue or desk started to emerge with missing legs or extra arms, …
Defra guidance: is it getting smarter?
The Smarter Guidance team has been working to make content smarter -- make it more readable and clearer for users. But how do we measure if we've been successful? I've devised one way and while it'll take more than a …
Exploring 'Rivers of Data'
This week saw the beta release of the Environment Agency's flood data APIs and 4 new open data products from Ordnance Survey including the detailed OS Open Map - Local and the new OS Open Rivers network data. Alex Coley's …
Near Real Time 'Flood Data' API
Open 'Flood' Data Last year the Environment Agency increased its publication of Open Data. In the first instance, and in response to the extreme flooding episodes of the 2013/14 winter, this included access to flood warnings, flood alerts and river …
Rivers of data
...api. Joining things up I’m looking forward to exploring the potential as to how this data can be used together. There are lots of opportunities to make interesting investigations into...
Open Data & Transparency... How do you make it happen?
Releasing public sector data as Open Data is a top government priority, as is being transparent about the work we do and the data we collect. But how do we make these things happen? What do we need to consider? …
George Orwell and keeping active
When we're writing for GOV.UK, we use the active voice, but a lot of the source content we're rewriting uses the passive voice. This is one of the most significant differences in style between Smarter Guidance content on GOV.UK and …
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