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Government frontend survey comparison between 2016 and 2018

Question 1: What department, agency or organisation do you work in?

MOJ, DWP, HMRC, Home Office still make up a big portion of responses.

There’s also a lot more individuals in departments across Government responding.

Answers

Name Percentage (2016) Percentage (2018)
MOJ 17.1% 22.7%
GDS 11.8% 18.2%
DWP 14.5% 12.1%
HMRC 19.7% 9.1%
Home Office 15.8% 9.1%
DIT N/A 3.0%
Cabinet Office N/A 3.0%
DfE N/A 3.0%
Office for National Statistics N/A 1.5%
DVSA N/A 1.5%
Met Office N/A 1.5%
NHS N/A 1.5%
DEFRA N/A 1.5%
DfE / ESFA N/A 1.5%
The Insolvency Service N/A 1.5%
Local authority N/A 1.5%
Environment Agency 11.8% 1.5%
NCA N/A 1.5%
HM Land Registry N/A 1.5%
Gambling Commission N/A 1.5%
Registers of Scotland N/A 1.5%
DVLA 2.6% N/A
Student Loans Company 2.6% N/A
Companies House 3.9% N/A

Sources

Question 2: What is your main role on this project?

This year we removed the ‘Other development’ category as it was too vague.

More people have selected ‘Backend development’ and ‘Full stack development’, this may be related to the wider industry too.

Answers

Name Percentage (2016) Percentage (2018)
Frontend development 40.4% 41.8%
Full stack development 6.7% 31.3%
Backend development N/A 10.4%
Design 21.3% 10.4%
Technical architect N/A 4.5%
Other 5.6% 1.5%
Content 1.1% N/A
Tech lead 5.6% N/A
Other development 19.1% N/A

Sources

Question 3: What is the frontend of your project built upon?

Node.js, Ruby on Rails, Python have largely remained the same, this year we see more people declare their frontend libraries with React appearing at 10.3% and Vue.js moving ahead of jQuery at 3.4%

Answers

Name Percentage (2016) Percentage (2018)
Node.js 28.4% 27.6%
Ruby on Rails 16.7% 17.2%
Python 12.7% 10.3%
React N/A 10.3%
Scala and Play 16.7% 9.2%
Java 5.9% 6.9%
Vue.js N/A 3.4%
PHP N/A 3.4%
jQuery N/A 2.3%
Riot N/A 1.1%
Razor / .NetCore N/A 1.1%
Microsoft Dynamics N/A 1.1%
Blade N/A 1.1%
Vanilla JS N/A 1.1%
Don't know 2.9% 1.1%
Dojo N/A 1.1%
.net N/A 1.1%
Other 9.8% N/A
Perl 2.9% N/A
Angular 3.9% N/A

Sources

Question 4: What templating languages do you use on this project?

More people are using Nunjucks, this is likely due to the GOV.UK Design System adopting Nunjucks to provide examples.

Again we see frameworks like React and Vue.js enter the results.

Answers

Name Percentage (2016) Percentage (2018)
Nunjucks 15.1% 22.6%
Jinja 5.0% 9.7%
ERB 10.9% 9.7%
React N/A 8.6%
Twirl 8.4% 7.5%
Handlebars 7.6% 4.3%
Mustache 16.0% 4.3%
Thymeleaf N/A 3.2%
Vue.js N/A 3.2%
Slim 4.2% 3.2%
HAML N/A 2.2%
Twig 0.8% 2.2%
None N/A 2.2%
PHP 1.7% 2.2%
Jade 1.7% 2.2%
Django templates 2.5% 2.2%
Scala N/A 1.1%
Razor N/A 1.1%
JSP N/A 1.1%
Freemarker 1.7% 1.1%
Don't know 4.2% 1.1%
Blade N/A 1.1%
Haml N/A 1.1%
Marko N/A 1.1%
Hogan 7.6% 1.1%
Riot N/A 1.1%
Other 10.9% N/A
Angular 1.7% N/A

Sources

Question 5: What CSS pre-processor do you use on this project?

Sass still has strong usage in 2018 but there is an introduction of CSS-in-JS libraries which have become more popular in 2018.

Answers

Name Percentage (2016) Percentage (2018)
Sass 78.7% 84.1%
We don't use a pre-processor 9.0% 8.7%
Emotion N/A 2.9%
Less 2.2% 1.4%
styled-components N/A 1.4%
Don't know 4.5% 1.4%
Other 5.6% N/A

Sources

Question 6: Which CSS architecture do you follow?

A lot of people are opting out of following a CSS architecture, of those that do BEM is still popular again with CSS-in-JS joining the ranks.

Answers

Name Percentage (2016) Percentage (2018)
We don't follow a CSS architecture 34.3% 40.8%
BEM 24.5% 36.8%
Don't know 25.5% 7.9%
CSS-in-JS N/A 5.3%
ITCSS 2.9% 3.9%
OOCSS 2.9% 2.6%
Atomic N/A 1.3%
SMACCS 1.0% 1.3%
Other 8.8% N/A

Sources

Question 7: Does your project have its own design resources?

More people have their own design resources, this could be due to the rise in popularity of design systems in 2018.

Answers

Name Percentage (2016) Percentage (2018)
Yes 31.1% 50.0%
No 54.1% 43.9%
In development 6.6% 6.1%
Other 8.2% N/A

Sources

Question 8: What frontend resources from GDS does your project use?

One of the aims of the GOV.UK Design System was to merge GOV.UK Frontend Toolkit, Elements and Template into one package to be used, so we’re happy to see a reduced usage of these deprecated libraries.

This year we also see people announce their own departmental resources, which have seen more investment.

Answers

Name Percentage (2016) Percentage (2018)
GOV.UK Design System (GOV.UK Frontend) N/A 25.3%
GOV.UK Frontend Toolkit 28.0% 18.7%
GOV.UK Elements 28.4% 17.5%
GOV.UK Prototype Kit 15.9% 16.3%
GOV.UK Template 25.0% 11.4%
None N/A 5.4%
Planning to migrate to GOV.UK Design System (GOV.UK Frontend) N/A 1.2%
govuk-react N/A 1.8%
Other 2.6% N/A
Own N/A 0.6%
Assets Frontend N/A 0.6%
MOJ Pattern Library (an extension of the GOV.UK Design System) N/A 0.6%
HMCTS Design System (HMCTS Frontend) N/A 0.6%

Sources

Question 9: How are GOV.UK frontend resources integrated into your project?

In 2016 we saw over 50% (“npm”, “package manager”, “gem”) of people using package managers such as npm, this year we see around the same results but people are announcing npm as their primary package manager.

Gulp has more usage but Webpack is a new introduction, which may tie in with the increased usage of frameworks like React.

We also feel for the people who responded with “Badly”!

Answers

Name Percentage (2016) Percentage (2018)
npm 19.4% 43.1%
Manually 27.8% 12.1%
Gulp 2.8% 8.6%
We don't N/A 6.9%
Departmental resource 6.9% 6.9%
Gem 15.3% 6.9%
Webpack N/A 3.4%
Prototype kit N/A 3.4%
Badly N/A 3.4%
Package manager 20.8% 1.7%
Github N/A 1.7%
CDN N/A 1.7%
Jenkins 1.4% N/A
Git 2.8% N/A
From scratch 2.8% N/A

Sources

Question 10: How do you keep those resources up-to-date in your project?

More people are using npm to keep their dependencies up-to-date, a new addition is “Dependency notification service” why open an issue or pull request on your repository.

8.7% of people are “trying their best”, good luck!

Answers

Name Percentage (2016) Percentage (2018)
npm 17.9% 39.1%
Manually 25.0% 26.1%
Dependency notification service N/A 13.0%
Trying our best N/A 8.7%
We don't 17.9% 4.3%
Github N/A 4.3%
RSS N/A 2.2%
When things break N/A 2.2%
Rarely 1.8% N/A
Watch for changes 5.4% N/A
Bundler 12.5% N/A
Periodic 19.6% N/A

Sources

Question 11: Are there any specific improvements you'd like to see in the frontend resources offered by GDS?

See the results in detail for a better comparison

Answers

Name 2016 2018
Content Delivery Network (CDN) for assets Yes Yes
more templating languages Yes Yes
better documentation Yes Yes
project scaffolds for different tech stacks Yes No
more examples Yes No
more components and patterns Yes No
standards Yes No
an improved Prototype Kit Yes No
accessibility Yes N/A (Done)
better code Yes N/A (Done)
versioned components Yes N/A (Done)
better support Yes N/A (Done)
a single package and site Yes N/A (Done)
a clear contribution model Yes N/A (Done)
better JavaScript Yes N/A (Done)
compiled assets including CSS Yes N/A (Done)
simpler tools for less technical people No Yes
authoring CSS rather than having to write more HTML No Yes
less reliance on polyfills No Yes
dont use BEM No Yes
tools to help port GOV.UK Frontend No Yes
use nunjucks extensions No Yes
ruby gems No Yes
adopt a form builder No Yes

Sources