Want a nifty little tool to help you understand how many people who use your website, app, product, or service that might have a disability or impairment? Try our calculator out* accessibility.education.gov.uk/app/how-many... *it’s not a replacement for doing testing with real users.

Great response to a team getting their service assessment report :)

@kerry1yons.bsky.social and I were asked to write an article for #servicegazette about our work on standards and accessibility guidance over the last couple of years. We're pleased to say you can now read the online version that was in the recent print version. medium.com/the-service-...

I’d be more surprised if EE’s app and website actually bloody worked for once. Atrocious digital products.

Have you recently given feedback to a product or service as an end user, about an accessibility issue? Either through contact info on their accessibility statement or other contact route? If so, would you mind having a quick chat with me or answer a few questions?

We're recruiting for a content designer to join our teacher services division in the fantastic schools group. SEO / £41,458 / London, Manchester, Coventry or Sheffield Closes at 11:59pm on 2 March www.civilservicejobs.service.gov.uk/csr/jobs.cgi... #Jobs #CivilServiceJobs #Design #ContentDesign

We've launched our intermediate accessibility training module in the DfE Accessibility and inclusive design manual this morning. Working in the open means anyone can complete it regardless of who you are or where you work or what you do. accessibility.education.gov.uk/training #accessibility

What does it take to do things well? The right people, leadership, care, culture, tools, support, resources. A failing in one or more (often more) results in poor user experiences, technical debt, excuses, and waste of time and money. Pisses me off when I see it happening when it doesn’t have to.

Valuable time with DfE's @andyjones.bsky.social, @kerry1yons.bsky.social & @debblanch44.bsky.social today, seeing their great work filling gaps in Service Transformation standards, looking at how GDS might do this but whole-public-sector. #govdesign #govdigital

Considering a career in Service Design and want to skill up? Maybe you're already in a service design role and want to gain confidence? Here's a comprehensive post about what's available in the UK in 2025 - esp for public service and third sector folks. www.weareserviceworks.com/blog/become-...

We're hiring 4 Senior service designer roles (G7) £56,353 (National) £60,373 (London) With additional capability-based pay allowance of up to £19,400 Apply before 11:55 pm on Thursday 13th February 2025 Read the advert for locations. www.civilservicejobs.service.gov.uk/csr/index.cg...

I could say something about these specific bullets….

EE’s web and app user exp is atrocious, it’s slow, buggy, and often just get this when trying to do the simplest of things like view a bill. This isn’t even a new thing, for years it’s been crap.

Want to eat better in 2025? Here’s a night Gousto link for you Here’s my link to try Gousto! Use it to get 65% off your first box, PLUS 25% off all other boxes in your first two months. gousto.co.uk/raf?promo_co...

Great post from Rob in the Vulnerable Children and Families team about the power of design histories. They aren’t just for working in the open, but help tell the story of changes to a product or service over time, and that all important, “why”. dfedigital.blog.gov.uk/2024/12/04/m...

Same. …. a "frustration, a genuine annoyance" according to another source, about how hard it seems to be to get things done. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Fancy coming to work in DfE as Lead Service Designer (G6) with capability-based pay allowance? Apply before 15th December (Salary £68,623 and up to additional £20,750 CBP allowance) Locations: Coventry, Manchester, Darlington, Sheffield. www.civilservicejobs.service.gov.uk/csr/index.cg...

Hearing about a public body that's just bought Microsoft Copilot licenses – because a senior leader thinks everyone should be using AI! – and told their staff to tell them what they could be used for. No policies, no training, no method of assessment about impact or for learning about what works.

Getting back into Weeknotes again weeknot.es/weeknotes-69...

I'm part of a group of content designers across DfE services and GOV.UK content that are drafting a plain language standard. We've based this on need and xgov conversations. Today we shared with our community. Feeling invigorated for the next stage #standards #servicestandards

When you get asked this kind of question in a work survey... Do you feel Copilot has had a meaningful impact on your wellbeing?

Lots of new people following me from the twitter / x-odus. What do followers want to see from me?

As we're recruiting for 5 senior service designers in DfE, I've had a lot of people ask about the roles and what it's like here. I can't answer everyone, so I've written about what service design in DfE is, the kind of things we are working on, and our plans. www.linkedin.com/posts/andyjo...

5 x Senior (G7) Service Designer roles now live in DfE Digital, Data and Technology £56,353 (National) / £60,373 (London) With up to an allowance of up to £19,400 capability-based pay. See advert for more information. Closes 30th October 2024 www.civilservicejobs.service.gov.uk/csr/index.cg...

16. Not ‘just’ UCD. Let’s reset our ambition on putting users and careful design at the heart of all the things. Co-design and delivery, proper meaningful engagement, social research, policy not just digital iteration, a mature / grown up relationship with stakeholders...

First 3 service designer roles are now live. These are SEO grade. There will be G7 (senior) roles coming out next week. www.civilservicejobs.service.gov.uk/csr/index.cg...

Bluesky now has over 10 million users, and I was #1,694,129!

Run 10k today in 1h 2min - first “longer” distance since 2018. Getting closer to the Manchester Half Marathon in October and more confident in my time and pace. You can donate if you like, as I’m running for CRUK fundraise.cancerresearchuk.org/page/andyjon...

Nice to see an influx of amazing people from across the design community joining here.

The EE app is possibly one of the worst examples of poor UX - it’s always flky and in my own experience, add to plan added a 12 month plan to a plan which was due to end because of the wrong number being associated with the order meaning I have had an expired contract longer than necessary

If you saw this online, for £28 would you expect something coffee table esque to turn up, something A4 sized, A5 or Postcard sized???

This is why chatbots need to be banned. No use to anyone.

I’ve had a heavy cold for nearly 2 weeks now, I’m pretty tired, sinus-y and have a suspected perforated ear drum. I used to get them a lot as a kid, the whistling noises and tuning fork sounds, popping and cracking are unreal, I’d forgotten about that symptom.

When you ARE your user!! For context, we built this service to manage service assessments and allows assessors to volunteer to assess services. I’ve Just volunteered to assess a service through it.

This is why we talk about our work in the open, why we build the tools people need, why our code is open source, so others can repeat it for their own situation. Excellent work @martinjordan.com @digitalservice.bund.de

Massive fire in Cannock this morning from 6:30 to just now This view from Solihull #cannockfire

As someone who is also working through developing this in DfE - I am so here for this to learn and have a different viewpoint @katyarnie.bsky.social

We published a blog about our work on assessments. dfedigital.blog.gov.uk/2024/05/01/m...

The good weeks are the ones that fly by. This week has been awesome, good meet up with some service designers in Manchester after work on Tuesday, we’re on track with our service assessment service implementations great replies and support for a LinkedIn post on UCD getting back to basics.

I led an assessment this week and one thing that stood out was a comment from research that is key for anyone creating services. “Don’t make it obvious you have designed for a disability” Keep things simple Start with content Use progressive enhancement only if you need to Test with your users

It’s like watching my intrusive thoughts in action www.instagram.com/reel/C5THEMd...

I get this ad on insta all the time and every time I see it, I think, I wish they’d done the reg plate input the right length. (I know it’s total click bait and they are preying on people to think it’s a legit gov looking service etc etc etc, before anyone starts.)

I’d have no friends left!! and also, deputy director? No thanks - my job is tough enough already.

Some great talks so far from HSBC and Skyscanner today at Naidex around accessibility

Anyone else feel like they are in a revolving door of perpetual shit??? I’m utterly disillusioned by so much at the moment.

If you want to see our book, manage, and assess a service (Service Assessment Service) in action Kerry Lyons and I doing a services week session at 1pm today (Tuesday 19th March) where we’re going through the end to end service. Get your invite: events.teams.microsoft.com/event/6d0ba5...

We’ve kicked off a discovery focusing on problems around accessibility, (specifically in digital delivery) and the supporting and enabling processes, knowledge, training, assurance, governance - all that stuff. I’d love to hear people’s experiences, problems, wins and failures on this topic.

If you have a sodastream or aarke carbonate, this swapover service is fantastic - C02 canister delivery. £39 every 3 months for 4 cylinders. Same cylinders as sodastream. That’s £10 per cyclinder rather than £22 for sodastream refills. I don’t get commission. co2you.co/products/gas...

Services Week 2024 (18-22 March) is fast approaching you can see what's going on and more importantly, sign up to events through the agenda that's available in this blog. DfE Digital have 5 events alone in the week, from journey management to universal barriers and designing whole services.

Read about Services Week 2024