I Like the Number 10 Redesign
Dizzy has been ruling the roost with a series of scoops on the redesign of the Number 10 website. The launch of the website has descended into the realm of the absurd. To list them in full:
- The launch was bungled (the site is still in Beta);
- It’s filled with errors;
- It allegedly violated intellectual property laws (see also: HERE);
- It’s downright ugly;
- It revealed the identity of an undercover policeman;
- It cost £100,000 for a free software package;
- It failed to meet its own accessibility guidelines;
- It failed to remove test pages and glitches;
- It released a bizarre video about Jeremy Clarkson’s bid for Prime Minister.
There has been some controversy over this last point, with the Guardian, bastion of humour that it is, describing people like Dizzy and Guido as “joyless”. I disagree: it was an utterly feeble joke with no imagination or wit whatsoever. Admittedly it is probably the funniest joke the present occupant of Number 10 has made, but that really is not saying much. Compared to Tony Blair’s sketch with Catherine Tate it is downright awful. It is also completely off-message: the Prime Minister is supposed to be “getting on with the job”, not getting distracted. Had an MP asked a similar question at PMQs, Brown would have savaged them for wasting the government’s time with trivial jokes. “No flash, just Gordon” is dead, long live New Media Gordon.
Despite all this I actually quite like the website. I think it is a great work not in spite of its flaws, but because of them. The design of a website should reflect who you are and what you are about. In this sense Number 10 have surpassed themselves. The new website reflects perfectly the type of government we are currently living under. Massively overpriced, inefficient, inaccessible, irrelevant, prone to error, incompetent and gimmick obsessed. New Media Maze have surpassed themselves.
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