gov.ie site guide

What gov.ie is

gov.ie combines the websites of Irish Government departments. It is the one trusted source which makes interactions with the Irish Government more user-focused and data-driven. Information is presented in a clear, understandable and accessible manner.

The following are the principles of gov.ie:

• consolidate department websites into one trusted source
• drive design by user demand
• focus on services over providers
• consolidate policy and consultations across government
• reduce service delivery costs
• standardise and improve user experience

This site guide has been put together to help explain to every department content team how gov.ie is structured and how to use the site. Additionally, it is to help the content teams during the transition phase, as they transfer their content to the main site.

This guide will:

• clarify what should go on the site
• explain different types of page layouts
• help determine appropriate locations for content
• aid departments in preparing to move websites to gov.ie

The following explains what types of content should go on gov.ie.

Content published on gov.ie

Each piece of content must do one of the following:

• help users with a particular government service (whether the service is online or offline)
• give information on government
• facilitate public engagement
• information on government organisations

Content not published on gov.ie

• general day-to-day advice for people or businesses that is not specific to government and can be provided elsewhere (example: advice on buying a car)
• advertising for commercial purposes; the site is not a profitmaking entity
• services and information that are relevant to civil and public servants only
• information or services which are supplied by non-governmental organisations
• legislation: this is to be published on irishstatutebook.ie
• open data repositories: these are to be published on data.gov.ie
• historical information that could conflict with current information

The two pillars upon which gov.ie is built are content design and plain English. They complement one another and are focused on making content accessible and user friendly.

Content design

Content design is a way of building content so that it can be understood and used by all people regardless of their age or ability.

The aim of good content design is to fulfil the users’ needs.

At the start of the content design process you should consider carefully where on gov.ie the content should appear. This should be informed by analytics tools and data to find out what users are looking for.

User needs

As part of the content creation process it is worth mapping out the user needs journey as follows:

As a learner driver

I want to find out what I have to do to get a licence

So I can start driving to work

This formula will work on all pages but is particularly useful when it comes to content about government services.

When preparing content for gov.ie, completing the above exercise ensures that it is clear to the author who the information is for, why the person might want the information, and what the purpose of the information is.

Plain English

Plain English is a way to write and present information so a reader can understand and act on it after a single reading. Readers prefer plain English, regardless of their level of education or reading ability.

What it means:

• writing accurately and clearly for the intended reader
• avoiding jargon where possible or explaining it at first mention where necessary
• using clear layout and design so the information is easily understood

How it helps:

• it gives everyone a fair chance to access essential services
• people trust the organisation more when plain English is used
• it improves the general standard of writing
• it can help everyone save time and money
• it is increasingly a legal requirement

Examples of plain English

The two brief examples below show that when you use plain English users can understand content more easily.

Unclear English

Should the response require considerable research before a full reply can be given, an interim reply explaining the position will be sent.

Plain English version

If we need to do a lot of research to give you a full reply, we will write to let you know.

Unclear English

It is important that you shall read the notes, advice and information detailed opposite then complete the form overleaf (all sections) prior to its immediate return to the Council by way of the envelope provided.

Plain English version

Please read the guide opposite before you fill in the form on the next page. Then send it back to us as soon as possible in the envelope provided.

Images and readability

It is harder for a user to understand content when irrelevant images are used. The use of images diminishes the ability to understand and slows down the reader’s ability to process the information.

gov.ie will use images sparingly.

Images should only be used where they are relevant and add to the content. The purpose of gov.ie is not to look pretty or entertain – it is to inform the user.

Stock images will not be used on gov.ie.

The only exception to the gov.ie image policy is in the case of news stories, campaigns, speeches and press releases where images can be used to add context.

• When to use: When listing members of the cabinet, it is important and helpful to use a photo.
• When not to use: Content about car tax does not need a stock image of a car.

Each department will assign a content manager for all content related to the organisation.

Department content managers are responsible for their organisation’s output on gov.ie.

Legal responsibility for the content on gov.ie, as well as the translation of that content, lies with the relevant department - and is acted upon by the Content Manager.

The content manager that each department chooses has a crucial role within gov.ie. They are responsible for the department’s output and will have to be empowered to make important decisions about their department’s content.

The department content manager should be at a senior level to ensure that timely decisions can be made on content. They should be empowered by their department to become the senior decision maker when it comes to the department's content.

The department content manager will be the one point of contact with the gov.ie content team who have the right to edit or unpublish content as appropriate in keeping with site principles and guidelines.

The creation of content follows a workflow. Fact owners are the subject matter experts. They liaise with the department’s content team.

Standard workflow

This is structured as follows within a department:

• the fact owner creates the first draft of content and sends to content team
• content team review and edit the content according to gov.ie guidelines
• the content is sent back to the fact owner, who looks at it for factual accuracy only
• suitable amendments (if any) are made
• the content goes back to the content team for final revision
• content is published by the content team

Services workflow

Most of the users who come to gov.ie are looking for content that explains Services. Therefore it is crucial to get this type of content right. A poorly written or incorrect Service page could create huge difficulties for gov.ie users.

Each Service that a department offers needs to be on gov.ie. The department content team will propose Services to the gov.ie team which has responsibility for publishing such content. A period of time will be required to review any new Services.

The gov.ie homepage highlights services and currently-featured content.

The homepage contains all the main categories of Services that are offered by government.

The homepage also features an internal search functionality so that the user can quickly find what they are looking for. The popular links at the top right of the homepage are chosen using site analytics.

Permissions

Info: More information on the archiving policy of gov.ie can be found on page 38 of this site guide.

Item was unpublished or removed

A Service is something the government offers to citizens either online or offline. Content about Services is what users rely on in their day-to-day lives so it is crucial that this content is easy to use and understand.

Every Service that a department offers, whether online or offline, must be represented on gov.ie.

These pages can link to external sites where appropriate (example: the Passport Reminder Service).

All Service content will be subject to gov.ie team review before publication.

Permissions

A sample gov.ie service.

Policies

Policies present a coherent picture on government policies or initiatives. Policies are designed to help users navigate their way around gov.ie.

Policies bring together news, publications and other types of content around a central theme. (example: the Rural Development Policy brings together all the documents that relate to Rural Development).

Each policy is accompanied by an overview, which acts as a detailed summary.

Any department can contribute to a policy that’s relevant to its work.

Everything published should be tagged with a policy. This ensures gov.ie users can find items via subject matter, not just by organisation.

Permissions

A sample gov.ie policy.

Organisation homepage

Each government organisation (department or agency) has its own homepage on gov.ie (example: Department of Health). These pages will give an overview of activities, roles and responsibilities in a standard format with consistent presentation.

Department-specific alerts can appear in a banner style at the top of each homepage.

Permissions

A sample gov.ie homepage.

Organisation information pages are used to describe the internal workings of a department. These type of pages can be used to create information about divisions and units within a department as well as corporate information like FOI publications, annual reports and financial information.

A sample gov.ie organisation information page.

Roles and Biographies are created and updated by department teams. They feature ministers and senior department officials comprising the management board or equivalent.

Role

This will contain a description of the responsibilities and functions of a position. Each Role has a Biography page linked to it.

Biography

Personal profiles will be created and maintained by the relevant organisation. For example, the Minister for Agriculture’s page will be managed by the Department of Agriculture content manager.

Ministerial biographies will include, as appropriate, the minister’s career history, education and a photograph. The amount of information included should be agreed with the person in question.

For senior civil and public servants, the primary information that is relevant to the public is their name and their role. A photo of the person can be included in the Biography too.

Permissions

Permissions

A sample gov.ie biography.

Campaigns are an attempt to draw users’ attention to content that is vital to their interests.

Campaigns should be used to inform users of major events, large infrastructure projects or efforts to encourage behaviour change. Content that is merely ‘nice to know’ or not widely applicable should not be set up as a campaign.

All campaign sites must have an accompanying ad spend to go along with it with a minimum spend of €20,000. Additionally, all campaign sites must be approved by GIS in the Department of the Taoiseach.

Campaigns have a strict word limit of 300 words but the shorter the better. If you have more words than that - you need a standard gov.ie page. You can then have 3 or 6 visual jumpboxes. These cannot be surrounded by lots of text or it will lessen their impact.

A sample gov.ie campaign page.

The Consultations page is used by government to get suggestions or feedback from members of the public.

This content type should be used in cases where:

• the department in question believes it could benefit from public input and;
• the department has a means of gathering information from anybody who wants to reply and;
• the consultation is open to all to respond

There are three stages for consultations:

Open

During this stage, the consultation is still accepting submissions from the public. This page will show a summary of the consultation and information on how users can take part.

Review

The final date for submissions has passed but the outcome is to be published. The page will show that the consultation cannot accept submissions anymore. It will also show the expected publication date for the outcome of the consultation.

Closed

A closed consultation shows the outcome documents. It will also incorporate all consultation responses as appropriate.

Permissions

A sample gov.ie consultation.

A collection is a way of grouping pages, publications or documents that relate to each other. For example, collections could be used to gather:

• meeting minutes for a cabinet committee
• yearly recurring expense reports

Every collection should have a short description explaining what it contains. Apart from this initial description - collections should not include original content – they can only aggregate existing content.

A sample gov.ie collection page.

Other content types found on gov.ie include:

News Story

Gives users news information.

Sample News Stories

A sample gov.ie news story.

Press Release

Press releases as sent to the media. Official statements by an organisation, spokesperson or minister.

Sample Press Releases

A sample gov.ie press release.

Speech

Public speeches by ministers or authorised spokespersons.

Sample Speeches

A sample gov.ie speech.

Policy Information

Content that explains or is materially connected to a policy area.

Sample Policy Information

A sample gov.ie policy information page.

Form

Where the user requires a form to access a service - there is a dedicated content type for this.

Sample forms

A sample gov.ie form.

General Publication

Publications about the work of the government. They are not to be used to create jobs postings. Jobs postings are not to be created on gov.ie. If job postings are required, the Public Appointment service or State Boards websites are to be used.

Sample General Publications

A sample gov.ie publication.

Frequently asked questions, or FAQs, are not allowed on gov.ie. Users of gov.ie are coming to the government for answers, not more questions. Write content that answers your users' questions.

FAQs are easy for the writers, not for the readers.

gov.ie content team

The gov.ie team is based in the Office of the Government Chief Information Officer (OGCIO) in the Department of Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform.

The gov.ie team works with the departments in ensuring that the site is of the highest quality – and it has editorial oversight over all content.

Each department has its own content team to create and update content on gov.ie. The roles detailed in this section will clarify the relationship between different types of users on the site.

Department content team

Each department should have its own content team led by a content manager. The size of the team depends on the needs of the department.

Each department must ensure that they have enough content staff to meet their requirements.

Department content manager

This is a key position within each department as they are the person responsible for ensuring all content that is published by their department on gov.ie is of the standard required. The content manager that each department chooses has a crucial role within gov.ie. They are responsible for the department’s output and will have to be empowered to make important decisions about their department’s content.

The department content manager should be at a senior level (Assistant Principal or equivalent) to ensure that timely decisions can be made on content.

The department content manager is responsible for the continuing management of their content. They will be the single point of contact with the gov.ie team.

The department content manager has to:

• review content to make sure it is written in line with gov.ie guidelines
• use data and feedback to ensure a good user experience
• liaise with the gov.ie team to report CMS issues
• publish department content
• review department content team’s work and answer their content-related questions

The gov.ie website is a collective endeavour to produce a high quality consistent online presence for government. The gov.ie team works with departments in an editorial capacity to ensure that all content follows a consistent approach. The below escalation route can be used to assist in managing any potential issues relating to the finished product.

Department content managers will discuss a dispute with a gov.ie content manager initially. If that does not resolve the issue, gov.ie management will meet with the department content manager.

If issues still remain at this stage, the department Assistant Secretary can raise the issue for resolution at the Interdepartmental Assistant Secretary Delivery Team for Government Communications, chaired by the Department of the Taoiseach.

Accessibility is a key design consideration for the gov.ie website. The site is committed to achieving a minimum of conformance level of Double-A with the W3C’s Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1 and complying with the National Disability Authority guidelines on website accessibility.

It remains the responsibility of each organisation’s content manager to ensure that their content published on gov.ie meets these principles.

Furthermore, Directive (EU) 2016/2102 of the European Parliament and of the Council, states that public sector bodies must take the necessary measures to make their websites and mobile applications more accessible ensuring they are perceivable, operable, understandable and robust. This directive applies to public sector body online content, and thus gov.ie content managers should be familiar with their obligations under this directive.

In the context of gov.ie, content should follow the guiding accessibility principles and be:

• perceivable – information must be presented to users in ways they can perceive through one or more of their senses
• operable – easy for the user to navigate through, well structured
• understandable – information is readable and is interacted with in a predictable fashion
• robust – content written so that assistive technologies can recognise and interact with it

In line with the directive, these accessibility principles apply to all content on gov.ie, with some exceptions. These exceptions are set out in Article 1(4) of the directive, with the following exception warranting explicit mention as it has a significant impact on the content transitioning process.

Attachment files (any document or publication in office file formats) that are not needed for active administrative processes and where such files are published before 23 September 2018, are exempt from the accessibility requirements set out in the directive.

Such attachment files can be transitioned into gov.ie without modification. The ‘rehousing’ of these files within the gov.ie website will maintain their original publication date and will not constitute a new publication.

The archiving that takes place on gov.ie is simply a way of excluding old content from search engines and internal search. The purpose of this archiving is to make sure the user has the best experience possible and only finds the most up-to-date information that is most relevant to them.

Archiving on gov.ie is not to be confused with an organisation’s own archiving requirements. An efficient archiving policy ensures that the user is not constantly finding old content that is no longer relevant to them.

There are a number of steps during the content publishing process:

• create (or draft)
• publish
• archive
• unpublish
• delete (Generally, deletion, which should be very rare, occurs only in the cases of inaccuracy and GDPR)

Archiving content

Some content types have a set expiry date – after which they will be automatically archived. Other content will be manually archived by departments as is set out in the following table.

All content on gov.ie must be in line with data protection rules and GDPR.

The department content manager is responsible for ensuring that department content meets data protection requirements.

The Official Languages Act 2003 sets out the duties of public bodies regarding the provision of services in Irish and the rights of the public to avail of those services. The purpose of this Act is to ensure that public services and information are widely available through Irish.

Public bodies have a duty under the Act to ensure that certain information provided to the public will be provided either only in Irish or in English and Irish.

gov.ie allows an organisation to enter content in Irish and/or English. There is a language option on every page to allow the user to switch between languages. If the Irish language option is chosen by the user and an Irish version of the content has been entered in the CMS, the content will be shown in Irish.

The department team is responsible for complying with the Act and for translation of content on gov.ie.

Contact your Department Content Manager with any queries you may have about using this document.