What is an anti-pattern?

An anti-pattern can be described the identification and naming of a hitherto unrecognised, unwanted and unforeseen outcome or behaviour.

The main aspect of anti-patterns is that they are not the result of design - they just evolve on their own - usually for a variety of reasons. Those reasons are very often shared with other similar organisations in the same business, so when you study a number of organisations in a particular field of activity then it becomes quite easy to spot the repeated, unwanted, behaviour.

To understand anti-patterns better it might help to understand what patterns are.

What patterns are

The term originally came from the discipline of architecture. Here is an example I dreamed up:

If you were an architect and you were designing a block of apartments, you may well design a few bathroom types. Imagine you have 4 bathroom types in a building of 300 apartments. Those bathroom types can be termed "patterns". By giving each pattern a name you immediately start saving time, energy and therefore money.

The "Executive Bathroom 1 pattern" for the apartment block has a meaning. It has set fittings, set sizes perhaps. When the architect talks to builder #1 or builder #7 she can be confident that they are all talking about the same thing. Executive Bathroom 1 could even be built off-site and the component parts craned into position. When completed, Executive Bathroom 1 could be decorated in many different styles, but essentially, the dimensions, fittings, shape and layout may all be virtually the same.

In some software development too, to solve a particular problem, or discuss a solution, programmers of a certain ilk talk about pattern A and pattern B. They may be programmers in different languages, but the pre-packaged means of identifying, describing and coping with shared answers to problems can help when dealing with complexity.

So, I hope you can see that patterns are a very positive thing. Almost every organised business will feature patterns - they just don't call them by that name.

So what are anti-patterns?

Anti-patterns are the unwanted cousin of patterns. They don't normally exist until someone gives them a name. They lurk around and take life on their own, because nobody is looking - a bit like mould growing up your exterior brickwork. Usually something is not being carefully managed and some overlooked criteria has unforeseen reactions and side effects. Things fall through cracks for differing reasons.

The good thing is, that once an anti-pattern has a name and a description then it is possible to deal with them. It is possible to come up with solutions. Patterns, and anti-patterns become a handy shorthand to describe problems and solutions. People can discuss them, and as long as the definition is shared, then everyone knows what is being discussed.

The solutions to the anti-pattern can often be shared, or improved upon.

I have worked in Local Government IT, on websites for 10 years and I have spotted some anti-patterns which I name and describe here. I don't know the solution to all of them. Contact me if you know of other anti-patterns in Local Government and if I agree I will add them to this list.

Local government website anti-patterns

These anti-patterns can be seen in other places on the web, not just on .gov.uk websites. Some of these patterns I put down to poor investment of the millions of pounds thrown at e-government over the last few years.

I managed to fend off most of these anti-patterns, and indeed many of them are formed by my own personal dogmatic stance in support for their opposites (for example promoting good Joined Up Government by deep linking from A-Zs and menus etc versus My Silo thinking).

Like all anti-patterns, they can appear layered upon each other, so hampering their isolation and identification.

Traditionally patterns are given a Name, the Problem briefly described, the Context shown along with the Forces that forged the pattern. When possible Examples and Solutions are shown. I am not using real examples - because they are so easy to find on local government websites, and I do not know solutions to all of them. Feel free to contact me and correct me.

Name : Info-bahn-cul-de-sac

Problem :
Information that contains links to other resources which should be presented as linked html documents - and not as a plethora of pdf or word documents.

Context :
Pdf and word documents can be the correct format for things like long reports, I am describing their abuse when they are used instead of taking the trouble to create "accessible for all" webpages. Taken to its extreme, a holding page can be found containing nothing but links to pdf and word documents.

Web users have long understood how the internet works, they know how to browse through information. It should be a seamless move between webpages which may contain links to other supporting information. Their browser contains a complete control structure for them to bookmark pages, navigate backwards and forwards, open pages in new tabs or into new browser windows.

The Pdf and word documents I am talking about go just one way - to their own last page.

Instead of browsing through and along interlinked highways of information (it was called the cute but corny "info-bahn" or "information auto-bahn" in the mid 1990's), users have to drive into cul-de-sacs and then turn round and drive back out. After shooting down yet another cul-de-sac users constantly return to the same holding page.

This promotes a sense of disorientation and deja-vu - "hang on, haven't we've been here before ..."

Forces :
Webpages require some skill to be assembled correctly. In the gov.uk domain webpages must also contain valid structure and be made accessible. It doesn't always mean that webpages then lead somewhere else, but it usually does.

Pdf and word docs require none of this regulation. Owners of word docs can save, or save as pdf, and short circuit the publication system - subverting any access control or side stepping any publishing gatekeepers. Any local Plain English rules can also be sidestepped, so they present a wonderful opportunity for practitioners of Council Speak.

Examples :
You visit a webpage, and all it contains is a huge list of pdf files for you to "download and read more". Sometimes the sense of disorientation can be worsened by making the title the same name as the file name. This can result in a user clicking on "Options 4th Jan [final].pdf" then finding out they have started a 32 megabyte download over their dial up connection. And this is the second time they have done it because the holding page doesn't show which links have already been clicked.

Solution :
Publish and police rules about what should be published as a pdf or word document.

 

Name : Frankenstein site

Problem : As councils buy vendors "webbified" applications, these get plugged into the rest of the website with little concern for trying to attempt to make the move between systems seamless.

Context :
What the website visitor experiences is a series of inexplicable visual jolts as they traverse parts of the site. The jolts are caused by inappropriate re-use of site graphics (sometimes obviously resized and badly pixelated). Inexplicable new navigational elements appear have to be learned and then instantly forgotten. A new link usually appears called "home" which generally leads to the window that spawned the new monster.

Core site navigational elements move around the screen, thus negating the benefits of keeping navigational elements to to one place for usability reasons. URLs may also suffer (URI Cruft anti-pattern). The result is a series of eyesores which may still retain some corporateness, but not enough to stop worried website visitors checking the address window to see what phishing site they have been wafted off to.

As the main website gets graphic updates these monsters are overlooked moving them further away from the corporate look as they just become Lost Islands.

Forces :
Non-holistic web development caused by decentralised, usually budget driven, silo thinking.

Frankenstein sites can also be caused by :

  • Legacy systems not designed for web output
  • Under funding
  • Over funding
  • time constraints and/or ignorance and/or costs caused by extortionate vendor charges in order to edit what is normally just a template file.
  • Lack of central control
  • Unprofessional attitudes and lack of basic web knowledge

Examples :
Department X has got some money, they spend it on a new application, a webbified version of their reporting system. The server is purchased, the SQL Server licence paid for. Just plug it in - and graft a foot onto someone else's head.

The worst example of this, in my mind unforgivable, is when users of a website have to remember multiple usernames and passwords to access different parts of the site.

Solution :

  • Retain central control of all website areas
  • Use a single designer, or a single design criteria
  • Stipulate design criteria before signing contracts
  • Depend as much as possible on style sheets
  • Never user a vendor who diplays content in tables (if they haven't understood the DOM and the semantics of display that what else haven't they understood!)

 

Name : SEO suicide

Problem :
On the internet a URL should be forever, local government sometimes change their URLs with little or no regard for those who have linked to them.

Context :
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is not usually an issue with .gov.uk websites whose content is automatically ranked higher, still, what's the point in deleting all that credit? Unless of course nobody knows what the value is.

Because of a lack of control, or a lack of experience someone makes a change internally which means the search engines lose sight of your content, any other organisations whose websites link to you now contain multiple broken links.

Forces :
At a single stroke caused by new software, CMS/CRM/KM/EDRMS, over zealous sysadminers or CMS super-users who change a configuration file without knowing what they are doing. It matters not who did it, or whether it was authorised, the net result can be that overnight every single url in siteA.org.uk changes its internal Cruft from siteA.org.uk/home/pages/live to siteA.org.uk/home/webpages/live.

Examples : Search google for "404 .gov.uk" - 213,000 results.

Solutions :
Sometimes there are valid reasons for URLs to change. This is something that I have seen that Central Government now generally gets right more often than local government.

  • Plan in advance to redirect all traffic from the old url to the new one.
  • Do this at the firewall level
  • Do this at the server level
  • Do this at the script level
  • Do this at the page level
  • Find who links to you first, notify them in advance, notify the esd-toolkit
  • Weeks and months later, find out who still links to you and remind them

 

Name : Ignition switch in the door

Problem : The website which includes on its interface tools that are part of the browser, and in fact override user settings.

Context :
The browser is the software that presents information to the user, and one would expect that responsible organisations like government websites would be at the forefront of explaining how easily accessibility gains are hidden with just a few menu choices.

Instead of explaining to all users how to use their browser accessibility options, some websites features like tricky css-swoppers that change the size of the text on the page. When the visitor then goes to another website, the text suddenly and inexplicably changes size again.

I liken this misguided and wasted effort to being like your service station attendant saying to you "Oil change done Sir! By the way we moved the ignition switch off the dashboard and onto the car door so you only have to handle the keys once, and you can start the car without having to get in, handy eh?". Just because you can doesn't mean you have to.

Forces :
Decision makers follow "Grey Soup Recipes", can be mugged by over zealous designers, website-uber-coolness desires overcome judgement. Lack of profound understanding of accessibility issues on the web and an inability to seek out and discern between what is real and what is not.

Examples :
Look at ten local government websites and you will find "Resize your text now" buttons on two of them. You will still also find "text only website - click here", when all users can just turn images off if they wish. High resolutions options can be chosen in menus and apply to all websites, not just the one being viewed. This will also impede upon your own "Frankenstein site" if you have one - which will serve you right.

Solution :
Read up on accessibility, become authoritative on the subject.

 

Name : My Silo

Problem :
Website owners want to maximise visitor count by keeping them and not letting them go.

Context :
The public cannot understand which local government agency does what, never mind what central government agency does what. They will visit siteA.gov.uk in the mistaken belief they will find information on a given subject. Good joined up Government means each gov site should help the public to get to the correct website.

Deep links should be provided from search results, from A-Zs and navigational pages to other local government agencies that provide local information.

Forces :
External links featured prominently do not go down very well within any organisation. This is especially so when they link to a partner upstream who is in competition for funding/control, or *god forbid* to central government.

Usability goes out of the window when local political tyre-irons are wielded. Even if enlightened individuals in an organisation understand the importance of local links - CEO's Councillors etc will not tolerate prominent external links. Promoting deep external links is seen as being deeply unpatriotic.

Examples :
Go to any local government website a the end of the month and try and pay your car tax, 1 twelfth of the driving population will be doing this on the last days of the month, so why don't local government help them to do this?

The phenomenon of "My Silo" also explains the plethora of county-wide network "portals" hailed as a triumph of inter-web-working which in fact represent the sole result of a number of "My Silo" stalemates. No organisation can bear the political fallout of linking to one another directly so they do agree to create another monster.

Solution :
Promote links to external sites as much as you can.

This has the side-effect of making your website into an important local portal, popular with people because they cannot remember which website finally provided the information, but they will remember where they found it ( your site ).

Internally:

  • Say it is government policy
  • Say it is the right thing to do
  • Say all .gov.uk domains have to do it
  • Find proof that users search your site for services that you don't provide (usually by looking through search terms used, or if you collect them, clicks on external links)
  • Find out which time of year that happens
  • Link to those external sites from your home page at those times of year
  • Prove to everyone that you are only doing what the public want

 

Name : Local Government Navigation Lost

Problem :
Local Government websites claim to use the Local Government Navigation List (LGNL), but in fact only use the first level and a faltering second level. They fail to offer their public usability wins of this polyhierarchical list. Instead of a list the second and third level terms get lost.

Context :
Primarily in a "3 tier" bureaucracy such as shires, the public are unsure about which services a council provides. A polyhierarchical list such as the LGNL allows the public to drill down to find "Street parking fines" by selecting, Business, then "Parking" , or, "Transport and streets" then "Parking" or "Road highways and pavements". In fact there are 8 separate paths that can be taken that lead to "Street parking fines".

Forces :
Technically this polyhierarchical list be quite a difficult thing to achieve. CMS vendors do not generally understand the forces that formed this list. Much worse are the lost opportunities for deep linking into other websites for terms where your council does not supply the service. This is often forged by "My Silo" behaviour.

Examples :
Look on the esd-toolkit / standards / LGNL and follow the links to the councils who claim they have adhered to the LGNL and you will generally find :

  • The first level of the LGNL only appears on the home page and links to a second level LGNL page which is often maintained by hand
  • These second level pages can attract very high traffic, so I can see the attraction
  • There are a few sites where second level LGNL pages are generated by querying the LGNL but fail to recognise that the meta data from the LGSL can be used to add value and help the public make informed choices about which link to choose.
  • The second and third level pages can be generated by computer AND contain very focussed messages.

Solution :
Tell your CMS vendor to sort this out, or be prepared to add a new "layer" in your website, something I term a Meta Data Management System (MMS) or meta data layer.

Team management anti-patterns

You may also enjoy these Team Management anti-patterns. You may recognise your current boss, a previous boss, a co-worker or even *gasp* yourself.

I have certainly either worked with or for most of these team member types. I also admit I either employed, or became more than one of them in order to get my own way. Because "it takes one to know one" I find this list very humorous.

Local government probably deserves it's own list, still, I have spotted many of these in local government.

This list is borrowed straight from the Wikepedia page on Antipatterns which may be more up to date, and it may link to fuller explanations of each pattern.