# Services

Contents:

# Introduction

Provides the pages and navigation for presenting the Services provided by Local Government. A part of the LocalGovDrupal distribution.

Content types:

  • Service Landing Page - the top level section for each service.
  • Service Sub-landing Page - detail and links to specific pages within a service.
  • Service Page - the basic page that can be placed in a service, and on a Service Sub-landing Page.
  • Service Status - an optional additional type for providing updates about a the status of a service.

Other content types in the LocalGovDrupal distribution can also optionally be linked into service sections and referenced from Sub-landing Pages.

# Examples in the wild

Brighton's Rubbish service page - see link above Croydon's Adult Health service page - see link above

# How to log issues

# Service Landing Page

# When to use a Service Landing Page

Use a Service Landing Page for the homepage of a section. For example:

iScreenshot of Croydon's Children, young people and families Service Landing Page (full description below) Image caption: A screenshot of Croydon's Children, young people and families Service Landing Page, showing the title, an introductory paragraph, two common task links and a list of links to Service Pages and Service Sub-landing Pages, each displayed with a title and summary. Source: Croydon (opens new window).

The Service Landing Page will be linked to from the homepage of the website.

# Provide a summary

Your summary should provide more information than what the title suggests. It should include what a user can do and find out in the section. Read the guidance on summaries (opens new window).

Example:

Title: Rubbish and recycling

Summary: Household recycling and rubbish collection service and collection times, what you can recycle, how to report a problem, and street cleaning.

# Using Common Tasks on landing page

Common task links allow quick access to high priority tasks within a section.

Engage with the service team to understand what the top tasks are within a section and use analytics to see what pages users engage with most. Monitor this over time and change it according to users' needs.

Tasks can be tagged as either "Action" or "Information" - these may display differently depending on how your theme is set up.

Screenshot of the LGD demo site "Adult and social care" Service Landing Page, showing three common task links - 2 blue information links and 1 green action link Image caption: in the screenshot from the LGD demo site, the action links have a green background and the information links have a green background.

# Service Sub-landing Pages

# When to use a Service Sub-landing Page

Service Sub-landing Pages are index pages that link out to other pages. They usually sit a level below a Service Landing Page. Think of them as chapters of a book, giving the user the option to browse everything in that section.

You can use them to link to:

  • Step-by-step Pages
  • Guide Pages
  • Service Pages
  • Sub-site Pages

They automatically pull in the title and the summary of the page they're linking to.

Examples:

Screenshot of Lambeth Councils Births Service Sub-landing Page - description below Image description: Lambeth Council's Births Service Sub-landing Page. They show the title, summary and the sub-pages, without a summary.

# Service Pages

# When to use a Service Page

Service Pages are the most commonly used type of page, they're useful if you're creating content that:

  • addresses one user need or task
  • is relatively brief
  • can fit on one single page
  • links out to an online form

If the page requires more guidance or information you will need to consider using either:

  • Guide Pages – if there's more content that's relevant to the user completing the task, but it doesn't follow a strict process, for example types of animal welfare licences
  • Step-by-step Pages – if the guidance follows a sequential process, for example Registering a death: Step-by-step

Examples

Brighton and Hove's How to use a wheelie bin Service Page, description below Image description: Brighton and Hove Council's How to use a wheelie bin Service Page, showing a title, summary, a common task link, then text with headings and related links in the sidebar.

# Adding a Task button to a Service Page

You can add a task button at the top of a Service Page by adding a link to the 'Task buttons' section of the Service Page editor.

Examples

The sidebar can show Related links and Related topics, which you can add in the 'Related content' section of the Service Page editor. The related topics can be suppressed by checking the 'Hide the related topics panel' checkbox in the same section.

# Service Status

Service Status allow you to give updates about the status of the relevant service. These appear on the Service Landing Page if the 'Show on landing page' checkbox is checked in the Service Status editor.

Screenshot of Brighton's Rubbish & Waste Service Landing Page, with 2 status shown below a title Service updates Source: Brighton (opens new window)

A list of Service Statuses also appears on the URL service-path/update:

Screenshot of Brighton's Rubbish & Waste Service Status updates, showing 4 updates with the most recent first Source: Brighton (opens new window)

# When to use a Service Status

Publish a Service Status when you want to tell your citizens about a significant impact to the service.

You can choose one of 3 categories to assign to a Service Status

  • Limited service
  • Revised service
  • Normal service

# Options for where the Service Status may be displayed

You can choose to display Service Statuses on the relevant Service Landing Page, and / or the overall Status list by checking / unchecking the appropriate checkbox.

Screenshot of the Edit screen, showing two checkboxes labeled "Show on landing page" and "Show on status list"

This Status list exists on the URL /service-status.

Screenshot of Croydon's Service status page, showing all the Council's Service's Statuses grouped by Service