I can’t believe we are nearly at the end of the year already, 2023 has zoomed by. Santa is getting ready to depart from Lapland and we are all getting ready for a few days off. It’s certainly been a busy year.

This year has been filled with lots of drama, laughter, tons of problems….and a few tears. Despite all this, the digital team has done some really excellent work, something I think everyone in the team should be really proud of.

Our director Sarah Jennings had this to say about the team’s work this year: “I am an avid reader of the weeknotes and so it’s a privilege to contribute to them this week.

Firstly, I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for all your hard work throughout this year.

The endless hours you have spent working to improve the website for our users and the professionalism and dedication that you have shown has impressed me immensely.

This year has seen the digital team grow with new members of staff. It’s encouraging to see growth in an area of the business that’s so important to our users. In 2024 we all need to focus our minds into putting our users at the centre of all our work.

I know there is still real pressure to deliver multiple tasks at the same time, this is not sustainable in the long-term, and I am aware Heledd is working on key priorities for the team in 2024.

Thank you for all your hard work and efforts this year in helping our users achieve their tasks online. It makes me proud that the team has achieved so much in helping the people of Wales.”

The 12 days of Christmas

a Christmas tree in a winter landscape

We thought we would highlight just some of the amazing things we have achieved this year, 12 of them actually, to go with the song ‘The 12 days of Christmas’.

Here’s an interesting fact: The actual 12 days of Christmas, was between Christmas Day and Epiphany (6 January), this was historically a time of rest, feasting, gathering with loved ones, and general merrymaking.

The song itself was first written down in 1780. The aim of the song/game was you had to sing until you made a mistake, then pay the price with a sweet when your memory fails. Phil would be out straight away, his memory is not what it used to be and pretty bad for a 28 year old.

12 digital designed, created and launched things

On the first day of Christmas, or rather the 3 January 2023, the organisation gave us tons of work, the work has been flooding in ever since.

On top of this mountain of work that the organisation sends us, the digital team has its own priorities on what we think we should be working on. These priorities are based on opportunities where we can genuinely make a difference for the user.

Here are just some of the amazing digital designed, created and launched things that we have been working on this year:

  1. a new waste permit application service
  2. published a new online job application service
  3. improved the flood risk activity permit service
  4. designed and launched the check if you are allowed to use land we manage service
  5. carried out user research and created new content pages for woodland creation and managing your woodland
  6. hired two new team members
  7. made our webforms even more accessible
  8. created a new content and publishing manual
  9. refreshed the website homepage link based on what people are actually searching for
  10. standardised our start and confirmation pages
  11. improved the about us section of our website
  12. carried out a massive tidy up of the website and cleared several hundred documents from the content management system that could be found through search engines

We have done so much more as a team, in fact I could be here all day talking about what our lovely team has achieved this year.

Heledd also became a published author in 2023. 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.

Looking ahead to the new year

2024

Sophie and Kim have been completing lots of tasks and getting various reports out the door for review.

We’ve got some exciting new projects in the pipeline, including a new comms plan for the team. The plan is filled with blogs and useful resources to support our organisation in creating accessible and inclusive content for the website.

We’ve identified key areas and pain-points that staff struggle with. We’re creating walkthroughs and content to support people as they create content.

Get in touch with us first

We would always advise anyone that is planning on creating any content for the website to get in touch with the Digital Team first before writing anything. An experienced content designer will then get in touch with you to talk about the work further.

Teleporting times

UFO picking up person

Heledd can’t wait until Wales’ transportation is updated to teleports that enable us to whizz from one end of the country to the other.

  • Lots of hours on trains – good thinking and reading time,
  • Another night out in Cardiff, again finishing at Tiny Rebel.
  • Planning for 2024 – team priorities, department priorities, recruitment and changes based on team feedback and challenges
  • Enjoying BlueSky now as a good place to connect with other digital / design types (Heledd has 4 invite codes if anyone’s interested)

Pets of the digital team

We love any animals in the digital team. To celebrate the fact that it’s almost the end of the year, here are some photos of our pets, who have been a comical addition to many a team call throughout the year.

Without further adieu… meet the stars of the Digital Team:

collage of the digital team’s pets

Other things we’ve been working on

  • James gave a presentation about user research for Social Care Wales’s Deep Dive session on Wednesday. The Social Care Wales digital team has offered to share some of their work on digital transformation with us in the new year. James has also been analysing a user research interview about getting permission to film on our land
  • Shaun continues to work on guidance for hydrogen producers, content on the quality of protected rivers, content on the quality of groundwater and has begun work on content and application forms for permit holders wanting to amend or surrender their medium combustion plant permits

Fun fact Friday

To keep with the Christmas theme, here are two fun Christmas facts:

Santa Claus has his own Canadian postal code. In Canada, the post code “H0H 0H0” is designated for Santa at the North Pole. Every year, Canadian children can send their letters to this address to receive a personalised reply from Santa.

Santa at the North Pole The famous political cartoonist Thomas Nast created Santa’s official residence as the North Pole in several illustrations in the 1800s. There had recently been a series of expeditions to the Arctic, and the North Pole. It was thought that both places were mythical, magical places.