SPIKE: research existing catalogue front ends

[seanprivett]

Identify code resources that mean we are building as little from scratch as possible: what can we borrow/steal?

Data Catalogue UI Evaluation Doc

Miro Board

Figma Files

will be using gov.uk style system

Inspiration from:

• other gov/OGD data sites

• other national gov data sites

• other existing user research @alex-vonfeldmann/@richerdtrist

• how do we serve this content? language / tech / framework used

• [x] https://data.gov.au/search

• [x] https://findtransportdata.dft.gov.uk/browse

• [x] https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-catalogue

• [x] https://github.com/uktrade/data-workspace

• [x] https://www.great.gov.uk/export-opportunities

• [x] https://www.data.england.nhs.uk/ncdr/database/

DoD

• inspo board on miro
• links to existing products
• existing research
• propose front end approach for business user testing

see discussion here: https://mojdt.slack.com/archives/C03QZ776JVA/p1702394917818249

[YvanMOJdigital]

Can @alex-vonfeldmann help with this?

[jemnery]

As discussed in planning, open government websites might be one avenue to investigate. Lots of governments have forked the GDS design system, so retro-fitting an existing site back to gov.uk styles may not be too painful. E.g. Australia's open data portal: https://data.gov.au/search

[jemnery]

DfE's Explore Education Statistics repo: https://github.com/dfe-analytical-services/explore-education-statistics (note it's not the main DfE GitHub org).

Note we in the Justice Data team played around with this a couple years ago to explore creating a "justice" version. The tech stack is .NET which may not suit the current team.

[tom-webber]

Dept. Business & Trade (DTB) Data Workspace repo. Uses a Govuk styling

[MatMoore]

Some components to look out for when exploring the existing frontends

Filters and facets

• https://www.nngroup.com/articles/filter-categories-values/
• https://www.nngroup.com/articles/filters-vs-facets/

Autocomplete/autosuggest in main search or facets

• https://www.algolia.com/blog/ux/auto-suggest-best-practices-for-autocomplete-suggestion/
• e.g. if filtering by domain users may or may not be familiar with what the domains are

Match highlighting

Tags & Labels

[MatMoore]

I put a message in #user-research on x-gov slack as well in case we can get some more leads on others working in the same area

[MatMoore]

This discussion on the design system has some useful info about filter components https://github.com/alphagov/govuk-design-system-backlog/issues/133

And this one within MOJ: https://github.com/ministryofjustice/moj-frontend/discussions/197

We have an implementation of a filter component in the MOJ pattern library https://design-patterns.service.justice.gov.uk/components/filter/

[jemnery]

Alex vF's Figma designs: https://www.figma.com/file/zTOVhHRnWfxRJqH6Gr8cIc/Catalogue-sketches?type=design&node-id=203-2121&mode=design

[jemnery]

Just been made aware of the Rail Data Marketplace, with a different approach to a data search UI: https://raildata.org.uk/