Government's web sites!

[Andeh13]

They have to be some of the worst laid out sites iv ever been on. This week iv had to re-apply for my student loan & change the adddress on my drivers licsense, and both times its driven me mad & iv given up.

Half the sites dont load(student loans, post login), or come up with an error & ask you try again later(drivers licsense after my address).

Im so anoyed by how hard it seems to be, compared to other big web sites (like the BBC etc) it is an absolute dog to use.


Anyone else have problems with them, or is it just me?

/rant over

[Salazaar]

If you want to tell us which website (linky?) you're on about more opinions may flow...

[nichomach]

I have to say that aside from information, the only ones I've really used have been the passport one and the DVLA's road tax one, which have been absolutely fine.

[mycarsavw]

Most are flaky in Firefox and cause me to have to use IE Tab which makes them poop in my book.

Government Gateway
Stamp Duty Land Taxes
Land Registry online
+ some others.

[nichomach]

The Land Registry one IS a pain; uses that weird ActiveX-based crap for displaying drawings, still, doesn't it?

[Lanky123]

Businesses websites have to be good so people dont have any problems buying their products or finding the info they need. The government has little incentive to do so - its not like you can use an alternative website/company. I remember finding it difficult to get a provisional driving licence from the DVLA website about a year ago.

[Andeh13]

I just find the direct.gov site so time consuming to use. Compared to other big web sites such as Hexus, BBC, wikipedia etc they just dont seem to have been thought out logically. The infomation all seems to be in one place, but trying to track down specific infomation just seems to be such hard work. There are just so many options & so many links that it gets confusing.

That being said, it might just be the fact that iv been spoilt with well built sites.

Website of the UK government : Directgov