Standards work was a large component of the original APLAWS Pathfinder Project. Between April 2003 and March 2004 the Local Authority Websites National Project (LAWs) developed Standards work further within an Information Architecture and Standards work strand. The intention was to build directly on the Local Authority adaptations of the Government Category List undertaken as part of the APLAWS Pathfinder Project and other initiatives. It was also important to build on the considerable collaborative headway already achieved in this area as part of the ESD Toolkit, working with the Improvement and Development Agency (IDeA) on mapping the “processes area identifiers” (PID) hierarchically into an enhanced version of the current APLAWS category list.
This work strand aimed to create the content and structure necessary to link together services between local authorities as well as with those from central government.
The overall aim was to provide standards for the organisation, classification and representation of web content, as well as to build these into the products being delivered.
| Interoperability |
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| Local Government Category List |
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| Metadata for the web |
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Website Information architecture standards |
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Web Accessibility Standards |
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| Metadata standards for syndication |
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The Government's Interoperability Framework (eGIF) sets the architecture for joined-up and web-enabled government. It is the result of international consultation and reflects best practice and advice from experts in both the public and private sectors working the field of interoperability. A main feature of the framework revolves around adopting XML (the data language of the internet) as the key standard for data interchange. For more about the framework please visit the Office of the E-Envoy's website.
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The Local Government Category List is a controlled vocabulary of terms that can be used to populate subject metadata. The list maps to the standard list of services (often known as the ‘PID List’) managed by ESD Toolkit. Holding information against this list has immense value to a local authority, since it means Web content can be measured objectively against this standard for electronic service delivery by authorities. It is then possible identify those areas of the website where content is deficient or absent.
The APLAWS system has built in the Local Government Category List (see the external site LGCL resource pages for details) to populate the metadata subject.category field. This is automatically mapped to the ESD Toolkit services, thereby assisting in an objective measure of Best Value Performance Indicator 157 (BVPI157) - a UK measure of local authority services online (see the ESD Toolkit external site website for more).
In conjunction with the Improvement and Development Agency (I&DeA), LAWs conducted four workshops lead by an independent taxonomist around the UK in the summer of 2003 to take feedback on the category list and proposed modifications, including proposals from the IEDISS project, which performed usability studies on local authority Web sites to improve e-democracy. The feedback from the Workshops was combined with the work of the taxonomist and submissions from contributing Local Authorities. Approximately 200 Local Authority Officers from widely differing authorities throughout the UK attended the workshops to produce the first edition of LGCL.
The next round of consultation was carried out in conjunction with the Local eGovernment Standards Body. These consisted of 14 workshops in 7 locations throughout the UK and were attended by 500 active participants. Subsequent revisions of LGCL have incorporated feedback from local authority officers, representatives of the Office of the e-Envoy, academics, taxonomists and private sector consultants. Changes introduced in version 1.03 take account of pilot testing in the APLAWS+ content management system (CMS) and a review of category mappings to LGSL services in conjunction with six West London authorities.
Issues are discussed in active forums of the esd-toolkit, where all local government officers may participate. To date, the LAWs IA&S forum on esd-toolkit has: 47 topics, 307 postings and 5,361 views. This does not include hundreds of e-mails, and numerous phone calls taken by both Porism (host of the esd-toolkit) and the IA&S Team. LGCL has become a well-reviewed and stable list and it will be subject to periodic controlled revisions via esd-toolkit (likely to be on a six monthly basis to align with new releases of GCL).
The Local Government Services List (aka the PID List) already has an established procedure for routine maintenance, versioning and updates within the esd-toolkit. It was therefore a logical step to extend that model to encompass the LGCL. Esd-toolkit will offer facilities for local authorities to submit new concepts, represented by new tree branches in LGCL in the same way as new services are submitted for LGSL (‘the PID List’).Support and refinement of LGCL does not stop at the end of the LAWs project. LAWs has commissioned esd-toolkit to host and support LGCL and to build it into tools used by subscribing authorities. Esd-toolkit will provide strict version control - LGCL is structured to provide backwards compatibility between versions.It is the intention is to link directly and work closely with the Local eGovernment Standards Body in order to syndicate information to be displayed always providing access to the current version.
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Metadata describes how, when and by whom a particular set of data was collected, as well as how the data is formatted. Metadata is often referred to as data about data. It forms part of the information management policy and structure for joined-up and web-enabled government, for the UK Online Portal and Gateway, Electronic Service Delivery, and for Electronic Records Management. The Government's Metadata framework and that built into the APLAWS system is based on the "Dublin Core" (please see the Dublin Core Metadata Initiative for more information about this). For more about the Government Metadata Framework please visit the Office of the E-Envoy's website.
The purpose of this work was to provide information to assist local authorities with a clear implementation of the government metadata standard. The consultation for this product was carried out in conjunction with the Local Government Category list however, a separate set of meta data Guidelines have been written. Guidelines were produced for applying the electronic Government Metadata Standards (eGMS) to Web sites produced by local authorities. Guidelines are relevant to:
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If government information is to be made available to citizens in a seamless manner, it makes sense that local authority websites adopt, where possible, a structure, based on categorisation and agreed web information architecture and standards. Widespread adoption of standard web navigation will make moving between local government websites easier since citizens will become familiar with specific categories of information.
Work was undertaken as part of the APLAWS Pathfinder to examine a "standard" local authority information architecture. As part of LAWs work was completed which has focused on implementation and explains how the improved APLAWS+ information architecture was built onto front facing generic XSLT templates, and about the presentation of the information architecture on the web pages.
Naturally, the presentation of information architecture incorporates a strong focus on usability, namely what elements are included on a webpage, how they are presented and why. The information architecture development process was centred on good user-interface design practice, ease of use and accessibility.
Experts with backgrounds in web design, information architecture, usability, and accessibility met over the course of several weeks to help devise the APLAWS+ information architecture. Input was also sought from web teams, designers, developers, the APLAWS User Group, and local authorities that had adopted APLAWS. The information architecture presentation ideas were subject to iterative testing.
APLAWS+ uses entirely new XML and this required new XSL. This provided the
opportunity to go back to the drawing board with the XSLT templates and rewrite
them using a cleaner, leaner mark-up.
The entire APLAWS+ template process has been improved to allow for easier updating. Revised templates, therefore, are available as a separate product that can updated as part of the APLAWS open source project in general.
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The web needs to be accessible by everyone regardless of disability. As with many content management systems, APLAWS separates content from presentation - and presents the information through templates. This makes is easier to manage accessibility, but the onus still remains on whoever is responsible for the web pages to ensure that these meet reasonable accessibility levels. In the UK this is now mandatory in terms of the Disability Discrimination Act. The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines published by the Web Accessibility Initiative lists the main usability principles for the design of web sites. All other materials on the subject are interpretations of these guidelines.
APLAWS, the precursor to APLAWS+, launched in April 2002 and while the original templates used in the system adhered to accessibility fundamentals, they were non-validated. This left much scope for improvements in the accessibility functions of the APLAWS+ generic templates, which will come with the downloaded product. To ensure this was improved one of the aims of the APLAWS+ project was to create a set of generic templates, the accessibility of which had been thoroughly tested, that would achieve AA kite-marking, under the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines.
Work was undertaken to provide into developing the accessibility elements of the APLAWS+ system’s generic XSLT templates. The approach used to maximise accessibility in APLAWS+ is documented. This document doubles as a guide to how local authorities who adopt APLAWS+ should approach the design integration, customisation and content creation processes to ensure their website is not only user-centered and usable at the outset but maintains that level of accessibility and usability throughout its existence.
The APLAWS+ templates make full use of CSS technology and incorporate the Web Accessibility Initiative guidelines into the HTML and XSLT code. The primary benefit of using CSS to underpin the templates is that it separates the HTML document structure from the presentation of information. The CSS style sheets allow precise control, independent of the HTML, of all the layout, look-and-feel and textual characteristics of the system. Another advantage in this separation is that the templates use simpler and cleaner HTML making APLAWS+ pages both smaller, and therefore faster to download, as well as more accessible. This approach ensures APLAWS+ websites are both accessible and usable to audiences whether they are using visual web-browsers, text-only browsers or screen readers.
The generic APLAWS+ templates were subject to an accessibility audit by IBM Ease Of Use, at their renowned Usability Competency Centre, to test whether the templates achieved the AA compliance with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines required. IBM’s report validated Loop’s (Loop-Digital, who carried out the work) approach to the templates, with no challenges bar a small handful of minor technical findings, all of which were straightforward to resolve. Consequentially the APLAWS+ templates achieved the AA compliance standard. IBM’s audit of the templates also ensured they are fully validated against W3C, HTML and CSS standards.
It is recommended that local authority adopters of APLAWS+ use this document as a guide for both customising the product and publishing accessible content. When modifying the templates APLAWS+ adopters should ensure they have the skills, either in-house resources or through outside contractors, to develop XSLT and advanced CSS along with a thorough understanding of accessibility issues. This guide is also designed to assist the web or communications teams of APLAWS+ adopters in authoring accessible content in the system. Adopters will also need to conduct a testing and validation process to make sure the built-in accessibility of the product is maintained. The guidance and other resources to assist adopters in developing accessible websites using APLAWS+ are contained in the appendix.
The entire APLAWS+ template process has been improved to allow for easier updating. Revised templates, therefore, are available as a separate product that can updated as part of the APLAWS open source project in general.
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The key outputs from the syndication standard work package were three documents that together define and explain the LAWs content syndication standard. The numbers of experts in this area are limited so the W3C method of consultation was adopted for this particular work strand. An “inner circle” of “experts” or those who are directly connected with this work were brought together and the specific areas of scope were discussed and documented. (The group consisted of representatives from Office of the e-Envoy, the Standards Body and Local Authorities). A wider circle of people who have knowledge of this area then approved recommendations and findings.
This was a new standard - built as a subset of the Government Metadata Standard making recommendations as to what is needed to enable syndication between Local Government and Central Government and trusted agencies.
These standards meet the Standards Body Initial Catalogue Headings: Data Standards, e-Gif, Knowledge Management, SOAP/XML.