Front end and accessibility¶
Defra services should look like government, work for everyone and work on any device.
Doctrine: 6. Outcomes and services over organisational structures, 7. Digital first where appropriate
Principles: 2. Design for users, 8. Right tools, right place
Who these guardrails apply to
The core department. Whether the front end and accessibility guardrails also apply to Defra's arm's length bodies is still to be confirmed.
See the Defra Digital Service Manual for how to do this: make sure everyone can use the service, components and patterns, content design and Welsh language translation. These guardrails cover the architecture choices that make it possible.
GR-FE-01 Meet WCAG 2.2 AA¶
Must Public and staff-facing services meet WCAG 2.2 level AA, are tested with assistive technology and publish an accessibility statement.
Why: It is the law (Public Sector Bodies Accessibility Regulations 2018) and Service Standard point 5.
In the Defra Digital Service Manual: make sure everyone can use the service, including the assistive technologies Defra staff use and when exemptions apply, manage accessibility in your project and test for accessibility.
GR-FE-02 Use the GOV.UK Design System¶
Must Public-facing services use GOV.UK Frontend and patterns. Staff-facing services should use them too.
In the Defra Digital Service Manual: components and patterns.
GR-FE-03 Progressive enhancement¶
Should Core journeys work without JavaScript, and are server-rendered. Use JavaScript to enhance, not to make things work.
GR-FE-04 Consider forms platforms first¶
Should For form-based services, consider the forms options under Customer Service before building a bespoke front end.
In the Defra Digital Service Manual: Defra Forms.
GR-FE-05 Design for low bandwidth and rural users¶
Should Many Defra users - farmers, land managers, field staff - work in places with poor connectivity. Keep pages light, support saving progress, and consider offline working for field tools.
GR-FE-06 Support Welsh where required¶
Must Services used in Wales meet the Welsh Language Standards where they apply. Design for translation from the start.
In the Defra Digital Service Manual: Welsh language translation.
GR-FE-07 Tell users what is happening when things fail or are slow¶
Should When a service is slow, a dependency fails or something is still being processed, users see a clear message saying what has happened, whether their work is saved, and what to do next - not a generic error or a page that seems to hang.
Why: Defra services depend on platforms and back-office systems that will sometimes be slow or unavailable. Users who are not told what is happening give up, try again and create duplicates, or phone for help.
How to meet it:
- With the developers, list each dependency that can fail or be slow, and decide what users see for each. This is the user-facing side of GR-OPS-04, which designs the service to degrade gracefully.
- Use the GOV.UK Design System problem with the service pages and service unavailable pages, and say whether the user's answers are saved.
- For work that is processed later, show a status and a realistic time, as in the asynchronous submission pattern.
- Test these messages with users in alpha, and test the real failures in beta by switching dependencies off.
This guardrail is a draft proposal. Comment on it by opening an issue.