It seems like summer is finally here so let’s jump straight into what the Digital team have been up to this week…

Marine licensing transformation

Sam and Toyah gave the first show and tell session to present the work they’ve been doing on the marine licensing area of the website. Members of the Marine Regs and Marine Licensing teams joined for a walkthrough of the prototype user journey, from an initial task search on the home page through to application completion and fee payment.

After the demonstration they explained what the next steps are and answered questions from the group. It seemed that their ideas were well received, and Sam and Toyah are looking forward to collaborating further with the teams to finalise the content and design.

It’s a dog’s life

the conservation detection dogs

The NRW Bangor office held an event on Tuesday all about conservation detection dogs.

The event was organised by the Ecology Detection Dog Britain and Ireland Working Group. It was open to anyone interested, even if their interest was solely in ‘dogs’. So the team in the North couldn’t resist going along.

The day began with a series of talks on the role of detection dogs in conservation and their use in surveying habitats for various species.

Some of the talks we enjoyed:

  • How dogs detect marine invasive non-native species
  • Biosecurity dogs for seabird islands
  • Curlew nest detention dogs for helping breeding populations
  • Moss detection dogs
  • Great crested newt detection dogs

After hearing all about the helpful work the dogs had been doing we were treated to some demonstrations.

Demonstration highlights

Max the german shepard cross getting his reward for sniffing out the buried pieces of toy then running straight into the crowd to get cuddles from everyone. Shaun even got into a game of tug-o-war.

Max the german shepard cross getting his reward for sniffing out the buried pieces of toy

Marnie the cocker spaniel searching a vehicle for contraband pieces of rubber toy.

Marnie the cocker spaniel searching a vehicle for contraband pieces of rubber toy

Ziba the pointer showing us that eyes are for suckers and noses are for winners by finding small pieces of bat wing hidden in the car park rubble.

Ziba the pointer finding small pieces of bat wing hidden in the car park rubble

Our rating

15/10 - best doggos, cute and educational, would pet again. However, Max may well have been the star of the day as he won over everyone’s hearts. One extra treat for Max.

It’s been a long time coming

Massive thank you to Lucinda for keeping an eye on the inbox while the Digital Publishing Officers spent their Tuesday singing & dancing at the Taylor Swift concert. We may be broken but we’ll come back stronger than a 90’s trend and get straight back into working on your requests.

Other things we’ve been working on…

  • Having trouble accessing content or encountering strange error messages this week? You might need to update and restart your laptop to ensure everything is working as it should be. If you’re having trouble, check for updates as they can sometimes be pending in the background.
  • Sophie has been in touch with some specialists working in different Welsh public services to invite them to contribute to our weeknotes, so keep an eye out for our expert speakers who will be discussing exciting news in the space, such as AI and Welsh user research insights.
  • James has been revising some content for the ‘Check your flood risk by postcode’ service.
  • Lucinda has been learning more about Figma this week. She has also been reviewing the Sign up for flood warnings pages on the website and thinking about downtime messages for the service.
  • This week, there have been a number of important updates across the website and Intranet, with our team has been busy providing accessibility advice and consulting with subject matter experts to assist in updating their content.
  • Owain has spent some time sorting out the testing for the Umbraco patch. With only a handful of outstanding test cases left to do.
  • Alex and Owain also had a meeting with Dean (ICT Test manager) this week. This was to discuss the Umbraco upgrade and calculate the test risk. This determines how much effect is required on the test effort that it needs to cover and how much documentation is required.
  • Heledd, Lucinda and Kim picked up their new laptops this week with varying levels of success.

Fun fact

Did you know that the 2024 summer solstice is the earliest since 1796? During leap years such as 2024, the solstices and equinoxes occur about 18 hours and 11 minutes earlier than the previous year. During non-leap years, the timing of the solstice moves later, so things generally balance out over time.