Government Digital Services

My government uses an in-house designed and built self-serve portal for pretty much everything from tax to healthcare etc. Its been around a long time - I remember being impressed with it when scheduling childcare benefits - and its grown in features if not so much in looks.A government agency employs normal average developers etc.They offer non-stellar wages in an economical backwater so has quite a boost on the local economy and gives programmers wanting to live more rurally employment

You might be thinking of the US Digital Service (https://www.usds.gov/)

(I've been working on Healthcare.gov for the past year and know some of the people at USDS; I was also YC S11 and appreciate the great parts of startup culture even more now)PSA: I know it's not easy to tell from the outside, or from a website, but this is the real deal. Things are starting to change; by government standards, at ludicrous speed. The Healthcare.gov crisis really started a useful fire.Todd Park, Mikey Dickerson, and the team he's building at USDS and the peopl

Have you heard of https://18f.gsa.gov ?

I met some of the former Googlers working for the USDS. They seemed to be many pre-IPO SREs who decided that improving government was more important than being an LP at a VC fund. They were motivated by getting tens of millions of people healthcare, and along the way they encountered huge challenges - like figuring out how to reconcile VA and Pentagon records. Their passion was inspiring, and the work they do affects millions without much glamor.If you think healthcare.gov was a mess, in the

GDS have done a fantastic job of what you might call "government UX", by getting people with the right technical ethos in charge. HN would approve of their minimalist, functional, responsive approach.Letting govt agencies who don't know what they're doing go out and tender for private sector building of internet services would be a disaster; they'd be oversold six ways from Sunday. Treble the cost to build the same thing three times for the three mobile platforms? Sur

Well it is a .gov... they have never been known for their beautiful UX :P

Has government done software well anywhere in terms of user friendliness?

I've been really impressed by GDS, i know it's popular to bash on the gov but in this case, i really think it's mis-placed, they've been really good. Take a peek under the covers and see that their work was adopted in other nations too: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/government-digit...Now if we're talking a

I'm British. I have no insider information about what the Government Digital Service do about other departments' use of their toolkit, but just as a citizen, I can tell you that the difference between the GDS sites and external ones is extremely stark.The passport application form[1], for instance, is smooth and well-designed, and the questions are well-written - a good example of the Government Digital Service's excellent design and solid implementation. Perhaps the only downs