If you think I'm overstating concerns about the loyalties of US tech companies - check out this memo from Anthropic CEO to staff on their battle with the Trump administration.
Very good piece, from @carolecadwalla.bsky.social
Never heard the Vaclav Havel story before - so true.
open.substack.com/pub/broligar...
Weeknotes
- gov mission update - staying on course for meeting policy intent
- recruitment - we've found some people, let's hope they want to join us.
docs.google.com/document/d/1...
Weeknotes
Alpha review - 2 hours chat with assessment panel. Went well in my view, let's see what the feedback says next week.
Recruitment progress, found a good 6 to interview next week.
docs.google.com/document/d/1...
The first edition of Conversational Design is available as a free download. I think more people should read it before they go making every interface into chatbots.
www.mulebooks.com/conversation...
Weeknotes
Gov mission service - alpha review next week
Recruitment update
Feedback on last weeks weeknotes
Bookmark - Design for Real Life book - now free. Recommended
docs.google.com/document/d/1...
Weeknotes
Gov mission - feeling frustrated this week
Other things include playing back AI experiments and thinking about UX Scotland next year
docs.google.com/document/d/1...
a century of glaciers melting 🧪🌐
Weeknotes
Gov mission work - internal alpha review
Nudging along a few strategic pieces of work I'm responsible for
Good set of bookmarks, found some new things this week.
docs.google.com/document/d/1...
Weeknotes
Gov mission
Conceptual services
AI
Misc other bits - were recruiting for interaction designers.
docs.google.com/document/d/1...
I'm pleased I did the speed awareness course, I'm glad I was caught going over the limit. I'm glad I've not injured anyone (I hope) by doing so.
I'm now a better driver. I wish we all had to do driver refresher training every 5 years to keep licenced
Weeknotes
Gov mission, Platformland, conceptual services, map components, Copilot, other bits and leveling up my weeknotes - made a public list of bookmarks
Speed awareness course - very useful.
docs.google.com/document/d/1...
Life has become about fending off a barrage of absolute shite. Blocking spam, ads, notifications, profiling, scams, phishing, quishing, sales calls, popups, slop, and also now in-your-face sickening "AI" in every single fucking interface.
It's not information overload, it's information assault.
Weeknotes
- directorate away day
- gov mission work
- other significant things done
- bookmarks - read these again
docs.google.com/document/d/1...
"AI may be giving you a million prototypes, but if you listen, AI is telling you in quite a painful way that being able to get feedback on your artefacts is much, much more important than the artefacts themselves."
Much hard-earned test and learn wisdom in this post from @duncanjbrown.com
Hat tip to @romdav.bsky.social for sending me the article link this afternoon for AI prompt led gov prototyping.
Great end to a good week.
Cheers Ro.
Weeknotes
- noodling forward with AI assistance making map components
- gov mission work - alpha momentum builds
- bookmarks. Exciting late entry prompt based gov prototypes
docs.google.com/document/d/1...
The very uncharitable profits of JustGiving which takes fees, a cut of gift aid, and then asks donors for a tip! bit.ly/4nzZpDV much better to give directly to the charity, but if you do use JG always set tip to zero. But you can’t stop it snaffling some of the Gift Aid
Congrats. Great news.
And loving your weeknotes(s)
Weeknotes
- trying to make a map component for the prototype kit, AI helped. I'm stuck!
- efficient land registration/ future
- gov missions work
- things worth reading again.
docs.google.com/document/d/1...
The title "Annotating designs using common language" appears over an orange background. A headshot sits in the bottom right-hand corner with Craig's face and "Craig Abbott" written below
Accessibility design annotations are only useful if everyone understands them.
Our latest blog post by @craigabbott.co.uk explores how shared language can help different teams avoid accessibility issues.
tetralogical.com/blog/2025/09...
#Accessibility #InclusiveDesign #SustainableAccessibility
We're running Intro to Service design in Government training online this week and next - it might be the last time we run it for while
There's a few tickets left, so grab yours now if you'd like to join Ignacia Orellana and I on the course.
www.tickettailor.com/events/ignac...
Weeknotes
Short. Not much to say. Sick most of week.
docs.google.com/document/d/1...
Today would be a very good day for the UK govt to delete its accounts on X.
Weeknotes
- Gov mission alpha work.
- Conceptual land and property services.
- interaction design disciple and community session.
We'll be hiring soon - two interaction designers.
docs.google.com/document/d/1...
Love this idea from @bm.wel.by - could be a relatively easy quality-of-life policy win if done correctly:
bm.wel.by/2025/08/26/u...
Liz Kendall (new DSIT Minister) opposing the sell off of land registry data is hopefully an indication of how she might feel about the PAF...
Weeknotes
Platformland activity club, 1st chapter show and tell what we made.
Gov mission, ideate widely, but the delivery pressure builds
Bookmarks - found some lovely things shared here this week
docs.google.com/document/d/1...
Or made worse for its users in order to save operational costs - government.
Also enshittification happens when organisations don't maintain the service they built. The deliberate decision to leave it slowly decaying. (It's delivered then left)
Weeknotes
On leave this week, but re-read platformland ch1 and 2.
And bookmarked some good articles/blogs from people here, to re-read later
docs.google.com/document/d/1...
