The UK Government officially “does” mindmapping! We recently discovered this amazing fact when creating our newly published map of the UK Government Digital Service Design Manual.
What’s one of those and why should care I hear you ask? Well since January 2013, when the UK Government first gave itself 400 days to make 25 major services simpler, clearer and faster to use, there has been an amazing and world-leading digital transformation in how online public services are delivered in the UK. The Digital Service Design Manual is the official roadmap for all those involved in developing online government services, which now must meet the mandatory Digital by Default Service Standard if they are delivered through the GOV.UK platform. It is maintained by the Government Digital Service (GDS), part of the UK Cabinet Office.
A “Map Of The Roadmap”
Our UK Government Digital Service Design Manual map is effectively a “map of the roadmap”, and contains >2000 branches hyperlinked through to every navigation link for each of the 3 main sections on the online manual website:-
Service design phases:-
Guides and resources for…
- Service managers
- Content designers
- Designers
- Developers
- User researchers
- Web operations
- Performance analysts
- Chief technology officers
- Technical architects
All guides by topic:-
- Agile
- Assisted digital
- Governance
- Making software
- Measurement
- Operations
- Phases
- Identity assurance
- Technology
- The team
- User-centred design
Wise Men Learn From The Mistakes Of Others
The final main branch of our “map of the roadmap” maps the UK Cabinet office website, which includes the Government Digital Service and every article on the GDS blog. This is a fantastic chronicle of the entire journey along the rocky road to digital transformation of government public services in the 6th largest economy in the world. It is very “warts and all”, discussing what has and hasn’t worked along the way, and each of the 700+ posts to date (many of which have been written by Mike Bracken, the recently departed HMG Executive Director for Digital), acts as a jumping off point to further sources of information and advice. Well worth “mining” over a few coffee breaks!
We all have a stake in the digital transformation of public services. As citizen and business owner consumers of those services, we want them to be as easy to use as possible so we can get on with our lives. As tax payers we want them to be delivered as cheaply and efficiently as possible!.
At Knowledge Mappers we are constantly guided by 2 mantras:-
- do not re-invent the wheel whenever possible.
- a wise man learns from his own mistakes, but an even wiser man learns from the mistakes of others.
We think our UK Government Digital Service Design Manual map achieves both of these objectives!
What about the mindmapping?
Oh yes…. the mindmapping….. Well it’s there in black in white as part of the Exploratory testing of software guide. Apparently “mind-maps are seen as appropriate for exploratory testing as they reflect the non-linear nature of the session”.
Well it’s a start, allbeit a modest one. Hopefully once developers everywhere have our map in their toolbox, they will realise a few more ways that digital mindmapping can help them achieve their digital transformation objectives of “building services so good that people prefer to use them!”
Go to the UK Government Digital Service Design Manual map product page.
