James Higgott

Monthnote: July 2025 This monthnote is a little delayed because I have been on a family holiday in the midlands. I had a lovely time, thank you for asking.

My monthnote for July is mostly about the Government's 10 Year Health Plan and what it means for the NHS App.

jiggott.medium.com/monthnote-ju...

Monthnote: July 2025 This monthnote is a little delayed because I have been on a family holiday in the midlands. I had a lovely time, thank you for asking.

My monthnote for July is mostly about the Government's 10 Year Health Plan and what it means for the NHS App.

jiggott.medium.com/monthnote-ju...

This is very timely. I'm contemplating the same thing for my 8yo.

I went a few weeks ago with my kids. I enjoyed it way more than I thought I would.

In Focus: Black Sabbath 23rd December 2022 Playing Heavy Metal , Rock N Roll, Psychedelic Rock. The true progenitors of the darkest art: heavy metal. Birthed in the industrial fug of 1960s Birmingham, Black Sabbath set themselves apart from ot...

Greatest Hits can be OK too: www.nts.live/shows/in-foc...

I was a late convert to Black Sabbath. If you need a tribute that isn't your standard Greatest Hits these are great:

Freak Zone Sabbath special: www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

NTS Guide to UK Hard Psych: www.nts.live/shows/the-nt...

Oof, yes. I spotted that.

I'm still thinking about the finish to the Test yesterday if that helps.

There are often comedic touches in otherwise serious(ish) genre things, like:
- The sarcastic robot in Interstellar
- C3PO
- Ship names in Iain M Banks' Culture series

+1 for Discworld/Pratchett, HHGTG/Adams, Portal, Bill & Ted, Futurama, Garth Marenghi's Dark Place

Unmentioned so far, I think:
- Robert Rankin's Brentford Trilogy
- Some Vonnegut (esp Sirens of Titan, Timequake) are very silly
- Alice in Wonderland

Release notes are something we have to do as part of app store approvals. They're not a great way of communicating to actual users, and very few users read them.

They pay out more per stream than any of the others.

+1 for Qobuz

Action link - NHS digital service manual Use action links to help users get to the next stage of a journey quickly by signposting the start of a digital service.

Did this user have a view on action links? service-manual.nhs.uk/design-syste...

I thought I booked in some time with you today but there's nothing in my calendar. Any ideas?

Dapper. Break a leg, Matt.

I've just edited it to make that more explicit.

Thanks! We aim for a mix of the 2: what we delivered and the impact it's had. It's sometimes too soon to see the effect but there's usually something you can say on that front.

Monthnote: June 2025 This month was all about planning for the next quarter, the NHS 10 Year Plan and how we deal with issues in live on the NHS App.

My monthnote for June contains (yet) more thoughts on portfolio-level planning, how to define the zombie phrase "front door to the NHS" and a warning about unplanned work and interruptions. weeknot.es/monthnote-ju...

I didn't take it as such. If I were starting now I'd probably choose Ghost or some sort of roll-your-own. It just takes time to shift.

Ta. And I can fully believe that we came up with the same title independently - it's an obvious-but-good pun.

Thanks, Mary. Getting off Medium is on my to-do list but I've got a busy job and 2 young kids so isn't happening any time soon.

I'm worried about them in this heat. I keep escorting them back towards the pond when they go astray.

Tiny frog on the back of my hand - it's less than half the width of my little finger, and I have slender fingers.

After a bumper crop of frogspawn we have hundreds of these teeny tiny frogs hopping around the garden. They're so cute.

‘appy now? I’ve been thinking a lot about public sector apps.

I wrote up a pros/cons session on public sector apps - I even used the same 'Appy now? title as you - from a product manager event about a year ago: medium.com/@jiggott/app...

No need - I can see we're both free Friday morning.

Hello Ian. Which bit of the NHS? It's actually been pretty quiet these last 3 years. Just muddling along.

All you need is an artfully arranged plate of biscuits.

Yup. Same here, even though I was adjacent to it.

Have you read Dean's history of the NHS design system?

I'm going to be a contrarian and say I have zero opinions on this very mild rebrand. It's lemon and herb at best.