{"id":1578,"date":"2015-06-24T15:55:08","date_gmt":"2015-06-24T15:55:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/?p=1578"},"modified":"2018-06-04T08:55:34","modified_gmt":"2018-06-04T08:55:34","slug":"went-visit-govt-nz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/2015\/06\/24\/went-visit-govt-nz\/","title":{"rendered":"When I went to visit GOVT.NZ"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is a post by Rachel Jane Patrick<\/span><\/a>, our departing Digital Designer<\/span><\/p>\n

During\u00a0March and April I was lucky enough to find myself in New Zealand visiting friends and family. I volunteered to go in and say hello to the team in New Zealand, who are working on similar website to our own, www.govt.nz<\/span><\/a>. I was keen to pick their brains about the project. Volunteering turned out to be a great idea as the team were so welcoming and open, sharing information about\u00a0their processes.<\/span><\/p>\n

Day 1<\/b> started with me observing as User Researcher, Annika, fed back on a recent user testing session which was both incredible and insightful. The focus on the test had been to\u00a0compare the new and old information architecture and design of the site and for this they had used some eye-tracking software to see which aspects of the site people focused their attention on.<\/span><\/p>\n

It was interesting to see from the results of the eye-tracking analysis that users kept\u00a0going back to look at the brand imagery. The use of imagery on www.mygov.scot<\/span><\/a> is a much-debated topic \u2013 as I\u2019m in favour of introducing images it was good to see evidence that supported their use. During the task-driven exercises, the behaviour of users highlighted that it\u2019s more important to get an answer than the right answer.<\/span><\/p>\n

I observed a planning meeting\u00a0that I have to admit went more smoothly than many of ours; I think that it\u2019s maybe something to do with the relaxed, chilled nature of the Kiwis.<\/span><\/p>\n

Next I had a great chat with Amiee, who heads up the Content team. Aimee talked about how content is written\u00a0before\u00a0the template formats are developed (not development first). They also have a read-aloud process when every word on every page gets scrutinised by reading the information out in front of a small group of people.<\/span><\/p>\n

As I mentioned before, I\u2019m all for more imagery on the site so getting to chat to the designer in the team, Meg, was beneficial for me to hear their rationale behind adding images to pages. She cited Edward Thorndike\u2019s \u2018halo effect\u2019 theory which states that an observer\u2019s impression of a brand, company or person influences their feelings and thoughts towards that brand, company or person, and they hope that when the user clocks a pleasant image on the site, they feel that they have had a positive experience.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cHumans change the process and that\u2019s okay as long as you remember the end goal.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Day 2<\/b> started off with a great presentation from Aimee about their recent site restructure and content audit. Their \u2018content formats decision matrix\u2019 runs from one-page<\/i> to multiple pages<\/i>, and informational<\/i> to process-driven<\/i> \u2013\u00a0each content format lies in a different quadrant. I love the stripped-back nature of the process, and it also means that govt.nz\u00a0has a great foundation which they will be able to build upon in the future.<\/span><\/p>\n

Currently New Zealand are consulting on whether they will adopt a new\u00a0flag or not \u2013 a task I don\u2019t envy them for! \u2013 and the next part of my day was to observe a planning meeting around the process for the Flag Consideration Project<\/span><\/a>,<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

My Post-It Note presentation<\/span><\/p>\n

Finally, shared with\u00a0the team with a presentation on how the mygov.scot team got to where we are. This came with a caveat that I could only tell them it from my perspective and that I don\u2019t claim to understand or know why managers made particular decisions or what their decision process was.\u00a0The feedback and questions that arose from my presentation were about the complex nature of dealing with the information architecture of sites, our team culture and morale.<\/span><\/p>\n

The main thing I have taken away from my experience of www.govt.nz<\/span><\/a> is that the challenges the mygov.scot team\u00a0face aren\u2019t unique.<\/span><\/p>\n

We should communicate more with colleagues on the Southern Hemisphere in the future,\u00a0as I learn\u2019t a lot from the experience that will improve our work.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The best thing about New Zealand: the people.<\/span><\/p>\n

Oh and it\u2019s well worth the 3 days travelling to get there (see gloriously sunny beautiful photography montage below). starts immigration process<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"

New Zealand \u2013 gloriously sunny & beautiful<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is a post by Rachel Jane Patrick, our departing Digital Designer During\u00a0March and April I was lucky enough to find myself in New Zealand visiting friends and family. I volunteered to go in and say hello to the team in New Zealand, who are working on similar website to our own, www.govt.nz. I was…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":224,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,10],"tags":[36,68,74,37],"class_list":["post-1578","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-digital-public-services","category-mygov-scot","tag-content","tag-design-and-user-experience","tag-product","tag-user-research"],"yoast_head":"\nWhen I went to visit GOVT.NZ - Digital<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/2015\/06\/24\/went-visit-govt-nz\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"When I went to visit GOVT.NZ - Digital\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This is a post by Rachel Jane Patrick, our departing Digital Designer During\u00a0March and April I was lucky enough to find myself in New Zealand visiting friends and family. 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