Michael Gearon
@michaelgearon.bsky.social
Senior Interaction Designer at Government Digital Service (GDS) • Co-Author of Tiny CSS Projects • Working between Cardiff & Bristol
https://mgearon.com
https://mgearon.com
This is devastating news, everyone in the design community will miss Vicky
Devastated by the sudden loss and passing of our dear friend Vicky. She was a kind, thoughtful and all round amazing person. So much integrity and sincerity
Thinking of you Vicky ❤️
@vickytnz.bsky.social
Thinking of you Vicky ❤️
@vickytnz.bsky.social
January 13, 2025 at 7:26 AM
This is devastating news, everyone in the design community will miss Vicky
Reposted by Michael Gearon
I've drawn up a set of principles for approaching web accessibility. I hope they help to frame your work as we enter 2025. github.com/Heydon/princ...
GitHub - Heydon/principles-of-web-accessibility: How to approach accessible web interface design
How to approach accessible web interface design. Contribute to Heydon/principles-of-web-accessibility development by creating an account on GitHub.
github.com
January 6, 2025 at 8:51 AM
I've drawn up a set of principles for approaching web accessibility. I hope they help to frame your work as we enter 2025. github.com/Heydon/princ...
Lots of good points about why design systems are vital but also realism of when it's ok to break out of the design system. As it says, if sticking to the design system means damaging the user experience, something has gone very wrong.
www.belkadigital.com/blog/why-des...
www.belkadigital.com/blog/why-des...
Why designers don’t like design systems
What do product designers really mean when they say “design systems limit creativity”?
www.belkadigital.com
October 22, 2024 at 5:42 PM
Lots of good points about why design systems are vital but also realism of when it's ok to break out of the design system. As it says, if sticking to the design system means damaging the user experience, something has gone very wrong.
www.belkadigital.com/blog/why-des...
www.belkadigital.com/blog/why-des...
Temporarily helping the i.AI team starting this week for design support of Consult, an AI-powered tool to automate the processing of public consultations. Using topic modelling and LLM to analyse consultations - interesting ideas ai.gov.uk/projects/con...
Consult
An AI-powered tool to automate the processing of public consultations
ai.gov.uk
October 18, 2024 at 5:19 PM
Temporarily helping the i.AI team starting this week for design support of Consult, an AI-powered tool to automate the processing of public consultations. Using topic modelling and LLM to analyse consultations - interesting ideas ai.gov.uk/projects/con...
Reposted by Michael Gearon
Hi, the next #DesignSystemChat is on
📆 Tuesday 29 October 2pm-3pm.
It's a WCAG 2.2 special:
▶ How we’re helping users meet WCAG 2.2
▶ How service teams are complying with WCAG 2.2 guidelines
▶ Discussion: How are you making progress towards WCAG 2.2?
🎟 Sign up: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/design-sys...
📆 Tuesday 29 October 2pm-3pm.
It's a WCAG 2.2 special:
▶ How we’re helping users meet WCAG 2.2
▶ How service teams are complying with WCAG 2.2 guidelines
▶ Discussion: How are you making progress towards WCAG 2.2?
🎟 Sign up: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/design-sys...
Design System Chat - October 2024
Join us for a WCAG 2.2 themed monthly Design System Chat, run by the GOV.UK Design System team.
www.eventbrite.co.uk
October 18, 2024 at 3:15 PM
Hi, the next #DesignSystemChat is on
📆 Tuesday 29 October 2pm-3pm.
It's a WCAG 2.2 special:
▶ How we’re helping users meet WCAG 2.2
▶ How service teams are complying with WCAG 2.2 guidelines
▶ Discussion: How are you making progress towards WCAG 2.2?
🎟 Sign up: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/design-sys...
📆 Tuesday 29 October 2pm-3pm.
It's a WCAG 2.2 special:
▶ How we’re helping users meet WCAG 2.2
▶ How service teams are complying with WCAG 2.2 guidelines
▶ Discussion: How are you making progress towards WCAG 2.2?
🎟 Sign up: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/design-sys...
Reposted by Michael Gearon
This is free, and pretty simple to do. Organisations should totally do it 👇🏻
• On Bluesky, you own your online identity. If you own a website, you can set that as your username. We highly recommend official organizations / brands to do this — it's one form of self-verification here!
How to set your domain as your handle - Bluesky
Using a domain as your handle helps with account identity, verification, and portability. Here's how to set your domain as your handle.
bsky.social
October 17, 2024 at 7:15 AM
This is free, and pretty simple to do. Organisations should totally do it 👇🏻
The recently updated guidance to using progressive enhancement when building UK government services is very welcomed. It has a good balance of being clear but not prescriptive about creating a good frontend service www.gov.uk/service-manu...
Building a robust frontend using progressive enhancement - Service Manual - GOV.UK
GOV.UK
How to build web pages so they work in HTML first: starting with HTML, extra styles and features, using JavaScript.
www.gov.uk
October 17, 2024 at 7:46 AM
The recently updated guidance to using progressive enhancement when building UK government services is very welcomed. It has a good balance of being clear but not prescriptive about creating a good frontend service www.gov.uk/service-manu...
Reposted by Michael Gearon
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...
£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...
Senior Service Designer - Civil Service Jobs - GOV.UKGOV.UK
Search and apply for jobs in the UK Civil Service
www.civilservicejobs.service.gov.uk
October 15, 2024 at 3:39 PM
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...
£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...
I reckon we're entering a new "golden age" of browser plugins, long gone RealPlayer and Flash. Now we have plugins to handle cookie consent, remove intrusive annoying adverts and redesigning whole UI's to make the web a bit more bearable mgearon.com/blog/fixing-...
October 15, 2024 at 8:22 AM
I reckon we're entering a new "golden age" of browser plugins, long gone RealPlayer and Flash. Now we have plugins to handle cookie consent, remove intrusive annoying adverts and redesigning whole UI's to make the web a bit more bearable mgearon.com/blog/fixing-...
Reposted by Michael Gearon
I have yet to be disabused of the notion that retros are basically team therapy, they are the work you do to ensure you continue *to* work, and if you don't do them (or don't take them seriously), they will come to you, but with extra shouting
October 14, 2024 at 7:56 AM
I have yet to be disabused of the notion that retros are basically team therapy, they are the work you do to ensure you continue *to* work, and if you don't do them (or don't take them seriously), they will come to you, but with extra shouting
Completely agree with the post. You don’t have to take a side between Automatic (Wordpress) and WP Engine to know that being able to forcibly take over a popular plugin, give no notice to users and then auto update people onto the new plugin is probably not a good thing for security
A quick article to help folks affected by the recent WordPress situation and the reckless takeover of ACF.
“Secure Custom Fields” is not Advanced Custom Fields
A quick article to help folks affected by the recent WordPress situation and the reckless takeover of ACF.
buff.ly
October 14, 2024 at 12:50 PM
Completely agree with the post. You don’t have to take a side between Automatic (Wordpress) and WP Engine to know that being able to forcibly take over a popular plugin, give no notice to users and then auto update people onto the new plugin is probably not a good thing for security
Lots of good talking points from @tsmz.bsky.social about what the digital centre for government might mean. Fascinated about what information flowing from a distributed edge towards the centre could look like ghijklmno.net
(What) can the centre hold?
A belated response to Jeni Tennison's request for reckons on what being a digital centre for government might mean.
ghijklmno.net
October 14, 2024 at 12:44 PM
Lots of good talking points from @tsmz.bsky.social about what the digital centre for government might mean. Fascinated about what information flowing from a distributed edge towards the centre could look like ghijklmno.net
Reposted by Michael Gearon
Excellent letter from a GP in today's Times. As a patient I'll only benefit from the joining up of my data if all clinicians describe the same things in the same way.
(Joining up the myriad "IT systems" is necessary, but very far from being sufficient.)
(Joining up the myriad "IT systems" is necessary, but very far from being sufficient.)
October 12, 2024 at 10:01 AM
Excellent letter from a GP in today's Times. As a patient I'll only benefit from the joining up of my data if all clinicians describe the same things in the same way.
(Joining up the myriad "IT systems" is necessary, but very far from being sufficient.)
(Joining up the myriad "IT systems" is necessary, but very far from being sufficient.)
Between the Internet Archive being down and exposing information from 31 million unique email addresses and the flame war between Automatic WordPress and WP Engine over rights and usage it has been a busy week for the web
October 13, 2024 at 12:45 PM
Between the Internet Archive being down and exposing information from 31 million unique email addresses and the flame war between Automatic WordPress and WP Engine over rights and usage it has been a busy week for the web
Reposted by Michael Gearon
Trying to pull all/most of the responses to this together, I've put together some of my own reflections on the big questions around the "digital centre" here: connectedbydata.org/blog/2024/10...
October 7, 2024 at 7:04 AM
Trying to pull all/most of the responses to this together, I've put together some of my own reflections on the big questions around the "digital centre" here: connectedbydata.org/blog/2024/10...
Reposted by Michael Gearon
So exciting to see this all starting to gather some momentum and collaboration around it - the digital gov community has the beginnings of some potentially very excitable and optimistic vibes around it for the first time in a little while just now…..
So, gang, I am in this group helping DSIT put some flesh on the bones of a future vision for digital public services, and what being the digital centre for government means. Hit me up with your reckons / pointers. www.gov.uk/government/n...
Tech experts to shape government digital vision to drive innovation and boost public services
Millions are set to benefit from reduced waiting times and improved public services, as technology experts, advocates, and academics come together to shape the government's new 'digital centre.
www.gov.uk
October 6, 2024 at 3:58 PM
So exciting to see this all starting to gather some momentum and collaboration around it - the digital gov community has the beginnings of some potentially very excitable and optimistic vibes around it for the first time in a little while just now…..
We need to rethink how internet bots access, use and reference (or lack of) our content. We can block, or at least put off, some scraper bots that are used for AI uses but it feels like it's a bit of an all or nothing solution mgearon.com/blog/blockin...
October 6, 2024 at 4:52 PM
We need to rethink how internet bots access, use and reference (or lack of) our content. We can block, or at least put off, some scraper bots that are used for AI uses but it feels like it's a bit of an all or nothing solution mgearon.com/blog/blockin...
Reposted by Michael Gearon
So, gang, I am in this group helping DSIT put some flesh on the bones of a future vision for digital public services, and what being the digital centre for government means. Hit me up with your reckons / pointers. www.gov.uk/government/n...
Tech experts to shape government digital vision to drive innovation and boost public services
Millions are set to benefit from reduced waiting times and improved public services, as technology experts, advocates, and academics come together to shape the government's new 'digital centre.
www.gov.uk
October 1, 2024 at 11:56 AM
So, gang, I am in this group helping DSIT put some flesh on the bones of a future vision for digital public services, and what being the digital centre for government means. Hit me up with your reckons / pointers. www.gov.uk/government/n...
Reposted by Michael Gearon
It's a two-post kind of a day! Here's my summing-up of all the responses to @jenitennison.com's ask for input into a new vision for digital government
www.timpaul.co.uk/posts/what-d...
www.timpaul.co.uk/posts/what-d...
October 6, 2024 at 11:33 AM
It's a two-post kind of a day! Here's my summing-up of all the responses to @jenitennison.com's ask for input into a new vision for digital government
www.timpaul.co.uk/posts/what-d...
www.timpaul.co.uk/posts/what-d...