Weeknotes s01e05

A bit of tick-tocking-along week in the day job. Nothing really to report. Stuff is happening. Most of the more eye-catching stuff day job stuff involved the mothership. Most of the more mind catching stuff for me happened outside of the day job – and these notes ain’t about that.

Weeknotes s01e04

Amongst pressing on with the primary focus in Leeds (a little more on that further down), it’s been a week about stitching bits together, seeing clearly how the collective NHS.UK beta work fits (and doesn’t fit), what needs doing yet, and working to make sure we know

Look sideways more

Helllllo. I think one of the biggest killers of perspective is just spending time in your own environment. Looking sideways, looking wider is difficult sometimes though. Asking yourself key questions is hard with nothing to compare your work to: How are we doing? How does it compare to what other

Mentor offer redux

Back in April I asked if anyone fancied some mentoring, specifically from me. To be honest, I didn’t follow through. A combo of tying stuff up at HMRC and prepping to join the nhs.uk team got in the way of me replying. And since then it’s been

Weeknotes s01e03

At the end of last week I noted that work was full on. It’s a week on from those notes, a long week on. But it’s been a rewarding week, adding up to a rich fortnight. We started the week with Dean joining us, bringing the Leeds posse

Weeknotes s01e02

Once my first post for the NHS.UK Transformation blog was up (a quick recap of the EHI Live session I was on) it was full into a week of pretty much full time, full on designing this week. I am trying this sprint to get us from next to

Patterns, patterns

0 I’ve done that thing – when the days start to get shorter and the days get colder, at that point of the year where one is weary and needs a bit of a shot in the arm to keep going until the inevitable enforced end of year break – I

constraints

Business constraints

Shooting Donnie Darko’s intro director Richard Kelly choreographed with the intention of using INXS’s Never Tear Us Apart. Due to budgetary reasons this isn’t the song used when the film was first released in cinemas. The song eventually used was The Killing Moon by Echo and the

Weeknotes s01e01

At the end of every week Matt Jukes publishes notes on his working week. (Here’s this week’s.) For the past few years I’ve written similar notes into Evernote as a “private blog”, but not publicly published them. I am going to try and publish what I can

stickers

I do this stickers

A few weeks back I rattled together a very quick sticker. I put it on Twitter. People seemed to like it. I’ve now done an asterisked, more “family friendly” version. !I do this because I am f*cking sick things do't work people expect them to sticker

Fight snub

Earlier this year I wrote about “us versus them”. I am sort of revisiting that post. I don’t like the word ‘fight’ at work to describe getting stuff done. It’s the language of conflict. “You’ll have a fight on your hands for people to value in that.

Getting people together

In the NHS beta team we try to do things openly. We publish little snippets on the #nhsbeta hashtag on Twitter We blog regularly. And we put our show and tells on YouTube. On Tuesday we hosted the first cross NHS design get-together from Leeds, as a brown bag lunchtime

My problem with “digital transformation”

I was talking a friend recently. They advised me I was giving the impression of being angsty, almost against the idea of ‘digital transformation’. I’d been doing it on Twitter as well. I sighed. I could see their point. My problem isn’t with ‘digital transformation’. My issue: The

People are not crows

For starters, a quick bit about some of the work the NHS.UK team in Leeds I am in is currently looking into. Time and time again in research sessions people say they go to their doctor because, as someone we spoke to put it succinctly: “My doctor is the

That’s not my home phone number, the area dial code is all wrong - Or, how I suddenly lost trust in my bank

This morning I was walking the dog. The dog is happy walking around on her own, so I decide to do a little life admin. It’s a busy day ahead, not sure I’ll get the chance to do it all, I’ll steal a march now. I’ve

What is it I actually do?

Matt Jukes recently wrote a brilliant, really brilliant piece on culture and hiring to supplement his Design Swansea talk. Put the time aside and read it. Matt also asked me if I could answer some questions for him, for a series called Who Do You Think You Are?. Easy peasy,

Typography, an example to learn from

Spotted today at Leeds trains station.  Anyway, here's the same idea with better execution. Thankfully.

USDS values

The US Digital Service have published their values. > Because how we work is as important as what we do. And there's just six of these.

number number dash number number dash

It's a bank holiday Monday. I've got that hour I never usually find in my weekend to do some life admin. Yes, on bank holidays I usually end up doing some bank stuff. That also means it is the time when the inconsistencies presented when filling

It’s how you display it

Yesterday my wife received an email “from” Government Gateway reminding her she has do something by a specific date, activate her enrolment. Here’s the email.  My wife shows me the email. “Why is the date shown like that?” she asks me. I say it’s a

stickers

Stickers as a thank you

Exactly a month back I posted on the brave and hard work being done by the team at Bradford council to create a new digital platform. After the team took the time to show me their progress, being done in the right way, I pulled together a quick sticker design

HMRC-ya

Early this week I told my manager and my fellow designers at HMRC's digital delivery arm that I am leaving. I had an offer. It wasn't the first I have had over the past few months. But this time I wasn't going to say

Keeping things on track

It's four in the morning. I've woken up in the middle of the night, can't get back to sleep, so I've got the NBA play-offs on. No idea why I can't get back off. Maybe it's because later

Mentor offer

Hello. From early June I will be spending some time during the week "closer to home". This means I will be about Leeds and Bradford more than the past ten months – by actually being about. I'd like to use this chance to offer myself as a

Knowing what to expect

A week of user research – and also a timely reminder that expectancy is something you can't take for granted, and legacy can be a burden whoever you are. That last bit is especially if you are government. We regularly encounter people in our sessions who would still prefer