directgov
The government’s latest incarnation of its one-stop internet portal - directgov is now online in a preview version. Using the fabulous internet archive wayback machine links are available to the original portal open.gov.uk (this version from 2000, but running from 1994) - which was little more than an A-Z listing of government organisations - and its successor a UK Online your life (this version from 2002, but running from 2001 and still live in 2004) - in which the key innovation was the organisation of information around ‘life episodes’ such as having a baby or learning to drive.
BBC carried a report/interview with the e-envoy about the switch. In it, Pinder offered an analogy to outline the difference between directgov and UK Online:
The e-Envoy, Andrew Pinder, likened the UK Online site to a travel agent that was suggesting destinations for a holiday.
By contrast, he said, Directgov was a purpose-built resort, though he admitted that not all of the rides were built yet.
Mr Pinder illustrated how the different sites handled queries using the example of a parent with a young disabled child trying to find out about sending their offspring to a mainstream school.
Using UK Online, a parent would be directed to all the sites of the government departments involved such as the Department for Education and Skills and the Department of Work and Pensions.
Mr Pinder said tracking down all relevant information can be tricky as the government maintains more than 2,500 websites, few of which share formatting or search terms.
By contrast, he said, on Directgov everything a parent needs to know will be collected on one page and individual government websites were invisible to the end user
“We are really trying hard to be customer-focused,” he said. “It’s something that government has not done very well in the past.”
