Statistics.gov.scot improvement project: discovery user research report

Practical issues and overall findings

This final section summarises the main practical issues uncovered by the user research, before describing the overall findings.

Practical issues

These are the critical areas to be addressed to improve the user experience.

Intuitiveness and accessibility

The current statistics.gov.scot interface is neither intuitive nor user-friendly for most participants, making navigation and task completion challenging for both experienced and newer users. Participants struggled with unnecessarily complex processes, jargon-heavy language, and an overwhelming excess of information that is not clearly organised or explained. The site assumes a high level of pre-existing knowledge, which alienates less experienced users and frustrates even those with technical expertise.

Performance

The site is typically slow, unresponsive, and prone to technical issues, significantly hindering user experience. Participants reported long loading times, frequent errors, and delays in processes such as accessing dataset landing pages, dimension locking, and uploading data for publication. These issues detract from the overall usability of the site, causing frustration and prompting users to abandon tasks.

Clarity and simplicity

There is a requirement to simplify the website's language, processes, and interface. Participants expressed a desire for plain English explanations, clearer guidance, and a more streamlined user journey that starts with simple options and progressively reveals more complex features. The current complexity of the site deters exploration and effective use, leaving users feeling confused and disempowered.

Finding data

The search functionality on statistics.gov.scot is ineffective, returning irrelevant or unexpected results, which leads to user frustration and impacts their ability to find datasets. Participants expect a more advanced and user-friendly search system that includes familiar features like autocomplete, suggestions, and filtering options to efficiently find, discover, and explore datasets.

Trust and reliability

Participants expressed concerns about the site’s reliability, with outdated content and inconsistent design undermining their confidence in the platform. Users want to know that the site is a reliable and up-to-date source of official statistics, and there is an appetite from data publishers and the wider open data community for user feedback and information on data usage.