The sun is shining, the skies are blue and the cherry blossom trees are blooming.

Weekly workshops to build a new prototype

Sam had a great workshop on Monday with a fisheries and a permitting expert. They looked at the prototype ‘apply for a bird licence’ form, focusing on:

  • question flow
  • need for each question
  • how questions were framed
  • question choices (free text versus multiple choice, for example)
  • the language we use

Sam worked on iterations to the prototype the next day, ready for another workshop next week.

Reflecting on our weeknotes

It’s been over 2 years since we started our weeknotes journey as a team. Heledd’s is asking the team for reflections for what works – both in the process, and as readers.

Some of the questions we’re mulling are:

  • How do we make the process simple for everyone to contribute?
  • Should we keep focus on work we’re doing – or keep it open to anything?
  • Do we all get familiar with GitHub, or is there something else?
  • Who are our weeknotes for – should revisit this to help guide our format?
  • How do we share better updates with colleagues about what services and content have been updated?
  • Should we look at some simple weeknotes rules to guie us?
  • Who’s weeknotes do we find useful to read?

A new almuni network

Heledd and Mark from Data are now part of the ‘Leading modern public services’ alumni network after recently completing their course. They’re looking forward to continuing to share experiences and find ways to better join-up public services

'Leading modern public services’ alumni network holding certificates after recently completing their course

FigPals, it’s been real

April 1 is what Figma calls ‘April fun day’ and it is usually celebrated by Figma releasing a temporary new feature. Last year it was custom cursors!

This year Lucinda was delighted to find they had introduced FigPals.

Like a mix of MS Words clippy and Pusheen characters, FigPals are customisable pet that keeps you company as you navigate around your Figma file. Here is Lucinda’s Broga:

Cute illustration of a blue from on green lilypad

Screenshot of FigPal called Broga

Watch the FigPal promo video on youtube

Sadly these little guys are being retired today. They will now live on only as sticker packs for FigJam boards.

Figma Blog: Finding a Forever Home for FigPals

Goodnight sweet prince Broga.

Picture set of Broga the frog

Welcoming a new face to our team calls

On our weekly team call this week, we got to say hi to little Isabel. She didn’t have much to say but we didn’t mind, she definitely made our call memorable! It’s great to have Laura back from maternity leave, and we love our new team member.

Screenshot of the Digital Teams weekly call

Regulatory Waste Decisions are now live

This week, we published the Regulatory Decisions content onto the website. This was a large piece of work, involving the insight of specialists within the organisation, content designers, translators and publishing officers.

As a team, we all worked together to ensure all the content is available bilingually and is user friendly to ensure a good experience for our customers.

Other things we’ve been working on:

  • To make the most out of the sunshine, some of our team has been meeting for ‘walking meetings’ to step away from our desks for a half hour and get some fresh air, exercise and Vitamin D!
  • Sophie published the climate change and net zero plans onto the website this week, big thanks to Mefty and Harrhy for all your support and feedback!
  • James has been working with Lucinda and Sarah Brown to cluster the themes from the recent user interviews about our ‘Send a flood message’ service.
  • Sophie and Kim have been working through the content board and their respective queues to wrap up old work as we move onto our new Hornbill system.
  • Heledd sat on two great interviews for two new Business Analysts who will be joining the NRW2030 team shortly – we’re looking forward to working closely with them!