Appy? Thoughts on the new GOV.UK app
The GOV.UK app launched in public beta last week. Here is Secretary of State Peter Kyle announcing it on LinkedIn.
I do have mixed feelings about a GOV.UK app – I can remember far back enough to remember a very different Government Digital Service (GDS) position on apps – We’re not ‘appy. Not ‘appy at all. But as Tom Loosemore said in that now-famous 2013 blog post: “We’re in the middle of a significant change in how people use digital services.” The important thing to recognise is that we still are: as people’s needs, and probably as importantly, expectations continue to change.
My overall view is that the app is fine. However, it doesn’t do much yet.
The sign-up process was a little clunky as you can’t access the app without GOV.UK One Login. I managed to sign up okay. But, from what I’ve read in some of the app feedback and reviews, some people have found setting this up and accessing the app more difficult.
Once you are signed into the app, the main value-add is that you can optimise the type of information you need to access (personalisation). For me, that’s things like Tax/HMRC and Driving/DVLA services I use occasionally. Most of the user journeys on the app (all the ones I could see) still signpost and navigate to GOV.UK webpages or services within the app. I can see some immediate benefit here …I often find myself going to the HMRC or DVLA services very deliberately via the GOV.UK website and search/navigation. This brings a level of reassurance that I’m not accessing scam services. I’ve been aware in the past of Google searches signposting people to paid services, instead of official GOV.UK ones.
Aside from the app linking to existing GOV.UK information, I think the potential link to localgov sites, content and services is one of the most interesting aspects of the app I could see. You can share your postcode in the app and it will remember your local council and signpost to their website. That feels like a useful first step, with the potential to integrate more localgov services directly as part of end-to-end user journeys from GOV.UK. This is something that’s always been missing if you want to truly design whole services from the perspective of ‘life events’.
The roadmap for the app’s development will be very interesting here. One comment last week that did catch my attention was from Will Callaghan, who runs LocalGov Drupal: “We heard an app was coming and a few months later it appeared. There was nothing public in between. I’d like to know more about the constraints, possibilities, research findings…” (LinkedIn).
If the app is serious about working closely with localgov, then I’d expect a lot more transparency here. And if I were leading this work, I’d be closely collaborating with a project that already exists like LocalGov Drupal.
Potentially, in the future, the App becomes a lot more useful with credentials like a virtual driving licence. As the Guardian’s review sets out: “[the] first version steers users to existing webpages, with AI chatbot, notifications and digital driving licences to follow.” Whether that promise of a chatbot becomes more than a new search interface also remains to be seen.
The Guardian also quotes Peter Kyle as saying: “…the design is not as we would like it to be [talking about its basic functionality]… But you will be able to do things faster, and you will be able to find services where in the past you would have given up because it’s a pain in the neck getting there.”
This all feels just like the original GOV.UK value proposition of simpler, clearer, faster. I remain healthily sceptical of the real need, or any promises made around more ‘personalised’ services. For most people that impact will be minimal (including for me, with the type of infrequent interactions I have with GOV.UK).
To app or not?
Returning to the GDS position of whether there should be an app or not, I think it’s reasonable to presume that there is research and data supporting this decision.
My read of this has also been about reach, and how more of the population now expect to access information on phones, and increasingly use apps over native sites. What’s not clear enough from GDS comms is whether this is a smart move to engage better with younger audiences in how GOV.UK meets those user expectations e.g. with the under 25s. I can see some of these patterns with the age of my eldest children, and how they are starting to interact with government services and information themselves for the first time.
My assumption is that changes in user behaviours and expectations aren’t helped by the state of many websites. Away from GOV.UK (which is still an exemplar site) most news sites don’t work properly on mobile because of advertising and intrusive trackers. We’ve arguably conditioned ourselves to believe the web is unreliable and untrustworthy. Another example is how Google searches are also showing increasingly unreliable AI-driven results and advertising.
Compared to this, apps offer some level of assurance, and/or increased safety – probably best described as information and services within a more controlled platform (with the security of something like One Login being required). As someone who believed strongly in the development of the semantic web, web standards and accessibility, I’m not saying this is a good thing.
Design systems and design decisions
Changes to GOV.UK branding is a separate issue for me, especially if the goal is increasing user engagement – probably better described as a desire to reach missing audiences. I don’t think that a refresh of core brand assets after a decade is necessarily a bad thing in any set of circumstances, and I trust that many good designers and researchers still work at GDS. I know they will be asking hard questions, continuing to put user needs first while looking to constantly improve designs.
How the app differs from the GOV.UK design system is an interesting design choice …As Alex Torrance (former GDS/GOV.UK Lead Designer) said in his initial thoughts after the app launch: “When you have a really strong, recognisable and trusted brand identity and design language it feels strange to ditch that completely.”
This takes me back to the point about the trust I think we have to place in the GDS designers involved. Elise Robinson was one of the designers working on the app and posted publicly last week, specifically highlighting important work on accessibility (shared on LinkedIn). Elise has also shared more information about the app on her own site:
“Unlike traditional government services, the app wasn’t born from a single, well-defined problem. The vision is broad and ambitious, based on the changing habits of digital natives and higher expectations of personalised services.”
What this shows me again, is that the one thing that has let GDS down during this work and the beta launch is the communication around the vision and purpose of the app. That includes the initial press announcements, ongoing updates, and it was evident in how Peter Kyle was set up to brief the media last week. It also sounds like this wasn’t communicated clearly enough inside GDS either.
It’s not right that the best insight I could find around some of the design decisions is via a GDS designer’s own site. But I think GDS can, and should get that right in the future (it’s still design principle #10). If that happens the app can still turn out to be an important moment in how access to government services and information continues to improve and meet expectations.
Getting an app like this to public beta is a big achievement, and I want to finish by congratulating all the GDS teams involved for their hard work in getting to this point. It’s important to see how the app develops, adds value, and meets user needs in the future. It will take time to understand if this has been a good investment and the right direction to take.
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