August used to be a quiet time; a time to catch up on small pieces of work, a time to catch up on emails and admin. Well not this August, the digital team are as busy as ever, keeping the ship afloat.

Improving our forms

We have many different types of forms on our website, some of these include:

  • waste forms
  • water forms
  • wildlife forms
  • felling licence forms
  • forms that allow our users to apply for permission to do something on our land

We have over 150 forms on our website, it’s a lot of work to manage and maintain them all. Some forms are in an online format and some are still on the website as Word documents. These Word document style forms are not very accessible for people who have a disability.

Before the new accessibility law came into force, we started turning Word document forms into online forms. We called this work “lift and shift”, as we were copying and pasting the text from each Word document form into the new online forms.

This was fine to start with, it made our forms accessible. It would have been brilliant if we could have designed these forms from scratch, with the user in mind, but we didn’t have the time.

As time went on, we realised that the forms were not consistent, our users could not understand them or even complete them.

Fixing the forms

A few of us in the digital team have now formed a little group to try and fix some of these problems. These are some of the things we will be working on over the coming months to try and improve things:

  • standardising the wording in some sections of the forms
  • creating and implementing a retention policy
  • turning all remaining Word document forms into online ones.

The next step is to begin mapping out different types of forms. We will look at which areas in the forms are inconsistent and try to improve these for our users.

Progress on some of our forms has already started. The lovely Sam and Kim have worked very hard to improve our waste forms. They have made the forms much easier for the user to understand and use. Sam has followed Government Digital Standards, to create some user-friendly waste forms. It’s this type of work we want to replicate in all our online forms.

Having a bit of a makeover

Since the major update to our website, we have since released two further (but smaller) updates to address a few issues that we have since spotted.

These have been a mix of:

  • accessibility fixes
  • general fixes
  • general updates

The accessibility updates were to address outstanding issues that we weren’t able to fix during the initial release. These were raised during our audit report of the Natural Resources Wales and Wales Coast Path website. Since then, we’ve been correcting any accessibility issues within the content of the pages.

We have also updated the logo and fonts on the Natural Resources Website to make them friendlier for visitors on the website. This has been used on all heading, content and links.

Horse riding permits

Laura and Lucinda have been cracking on with permissions.

This week they had a meeting with Gwyndaf who processes applications for horse riding permits in Newborough. Gwyndaf demonstrated what he does to process a permit from start to finish. The process could take less than 5 minutes, but incomplete applications and chasing customers for payment can stretch the process out for weeks.

We hope the new service will make this a smoother process for both Gwyndaf as well as users.

Ysgrifennu triawd / Trio Writing

The fabulous Heledd is now a published author. Her book “Ysgrifennu triawd / Trio Writing” is now available to buy from all good bookshops, or you can order it directly from the online shop.

Here is a brief intro to the book:

“Dychmygwch Gymru lle mae’r holl gynnwys Cymraeg yn hawdd i’w ganfod ac yn haws byth i’w ddarllen. Cymru lle rydyn ni’n defnyddio gwasanaethau yn y Gymraeg a/neu’r Saesneg, heb feddwl ddwywaith am y peth. Digon posib bod llawer o’r cynnwys mae pobl yn ei weld yn y Gymraeg yn gywir. Ond, mae angen iddo fod yn haws i’w ddarllen – dyna mae pobl wedi’i ddweud wrth i ni baratoi’r llyfr hwn. Peth pobl yw iaith yn y bôn, ac mae angen rhoi pobl wrth galon yr holl gynnwys rydyn ni’n ei greu – yn ein dwy iaith ni.”

“Imagine a Wales in which all content in Cymraeg is easy to find and effortless to read. A Wales where people who can speak Welsh effortlessly navigate services in Welsh and/or English, without giving their language behaviour a second thought. In preparing this book, people have told us that although much Welsh language content they see may be accurate, their experience of content in Cymraeg needs to be easier. Language is fundamentally a people thing, and we need to put people at the heart of all the content we create – in both our languages.”

Other things we have been working on:

  • Sophie’s been updating webpage copy to ensure we are compliant with our trademark use across the website, as well as ensuring the accessibility statement captures our latest progress as we work to make our website accessible in line with legal standards
  • On the Intranet, Kim and Sophie have been updating content, creating new web pages and pathways through the site using the navigation menu at the top of the page

Fun Fact Friday

Thank you to Lucinda for this week’s fun fact:

Michel Lotito was a French entertainer, born in Grenoble, famous for deliberate consumption of indigestible objects. He came to be known as Monsieur “Mouth” Mangetout (“Mr. Eat-All”).

He started eating this unusual diet at age 9.

He had an eating disorder known as pica, which is a psychological disorder characterised by an appetite for substances that are largely non-nutritive.

Doctors determined that Lotito also had a thick lining in his stomach and intestines which allowed his consumption of sharp metal without suffering injury.

Lotito’s performances involved the consumption of metal, glass, rubber and other materials. He disassembled, cut up, and consumed items such as bicycles, shopping carts, televisions, Beds and a Cessna 150, among other items. The Cessna 150 took roughly two years to be eaten, from 1978 to 1980.

You can read more about “Mr. Eat-All” on Wikipedia.