Directgov, the government’s services portal, relaunched today, promising a new-look, simpler navigation and improved range and quality of information.
The new site is better organised and the search function returns more relevant results—a big improvement from the last edition—based on a few searches I ran. The red-on-white links are difficult to read, but overall, the main government portal seems to be finally making some progress online.
Directgov is only the beginning, however, as many indivdual government sites are still inadequate. The UK Parliament’s site, called “dry and unengaging” and “impenetrable to most people” last weekin a report by the Hansard Society, even admits their information is dated, directing Scottish users to look up their MPs on the BBC election site.
According to a BBC news story, the Parliament site does not have its own webmaster. I’m not suggesting they’re hiring, but click here for their careers page—in case you can’t find it on the site yourself.