Statistics.gov.scot improvement project: discovery user research report
The research aimed to understand the current user needs and expectations of the Scottish Government’s site for open access to Scotland’s official statistics: statistics.gov.scot. This programme of user research is one workstream of the discovery project to improve statistics.gov.scot.
Appendix A – Workshop session materials
Session outline
Aim: To understand how a range of internal SG users are using the site for providing data and working with data. Understanding their workflows, challenges, and needs will inform how we better support these users.
Workshop outline (1.5 hours)
1. Introduction (10 minutes)
Welcome and icebreaker (5 mins): Introduce yourself and tell us something you’re not great with that you’d like to get good at (Tom - I have a very long list…bowling, roller-skating, being quiet…)
Housekeeping (where needed):
- Fire Alarm Test at 11am.
- Please mute mics and blur backgrounds.
- Please use ‘Raise Hand’ feature to talk.
Overview of the session (5 mins): Explain the structure of the research, what we’re going to be doing in this workshop and why.
Why are we doing this? To plan for any improvements, we need to think about common experiences of the site – you (users) are the best people to tell us what works and what doesn’t.
2. User journey mapping (20 mins)
Groups of 2 or 3, one user scenario each, 10 mins. Purpose of this section is to get participants thinking in terms of needs, journeys, and pain points, and test our assumptions about what we think users are doing.
- Talk through example of user journey mapping from user scenario (we provide the scenarios).
- With statistics.gov.scot website open for reference, groups map out user journey (pen on paper or digital whiteboard), focussing on (but not limited to) website use.
- Document touchpoints/interactions and the user’s emotions.
- Note pain points where the site doesn’t meet expectations and/or makes achieving their goals difficult.
- Groups present their user journey maps (10 mins). Discuss and note down common themes and pain points.
3. User goals, needs and barriers (20-30 mins)
Group discussion with notes. Here we want to understand how these users use (or might use) the site to achieve their goals, and what could be better.
- Discuss and make notes on the following (pen on paper or digital whiteboard):
- Goals: What do you use (or what might you use) the site for?
- Goals: Are there any shared goals in how you use (or might use) the site?
- Needs: How did the user journey maps compare to your use of the site/workflow? What was similar or different?
- Needs: What do you need the site to do? Why?
- Challenges: What do you struggle with when it comes to using the site?
- Challenges: Do you have any suggestions of how the site could make your job easier?
- Report back on their discussion, noting any commonalities and differences.
[Break – 5 mins]
4. General discussion (15-20 mins)
- Describe your process for working with data. What tools or software do you use?
- Have you encountered any issues with accessing data? Please describe them.
- Data providers: Describe your process for preparing data to provide to the site. What tools or software do you use?
- Data providers: Have you encountered any issues with providing data? Please describe them.
- What are the boring/fiddly/annoying parts?
- Data providers: How long does it take for data to become available after submission? Does that seem okay?
- Have you ever had difficulty accessing particular tools or features on the website? What were the circumstances?
- Are there any features or tools on the website that you find particularly useful or particularly frustrating?
- Do you communicate or collaborate with other users? How do you do this? What do you talk about?
- How could the site be improved for you?
- What improvements or additional features would make your job easier?
- How could we improve the quality of published data?
5. Thanks, next steps (5 mins)
Thanks all, here’s what we did today and here’s what’s next.
Scenarios for user journey mapping
Example Scenario: Entertainment value
Celine volunteers for a small arts events charity and is writing a funding application. She is passionate and knowledgeable about the social value of the arts, but needs to gather some key statistics on their economic value in Scotland. She heads to statistics.gov.scot on her laptop to get some relevant figures.
Task: Map out the steps Celine would take to find relevant data.
- The overall goal.
- Celine’s touchpoints or interactions with the site.
- Anything that makes achieving the goal difficult.
- How Celine is feeling at each part of the journey.
Overall goal: to find reliable stats on the economic value of the arts in Scotland.
Touchpoint 1: Celine navigates to statistics.gov.scot and decides to search by subject.
Pain point 1: Celine sees a lot of information and options for navigation in quite a busy layout. She doesn’t understand what ATLAS or DATA CART mean.
Emotion 1: Slightly overwhelmed and intimidated by the layout, but keen to get to grips with it all.
Touchpoint 2: Celine types ‘arts’ into the search by subject field. 0 datasets match ‘arts’.
Pain point 2: Celine was hoping to see relevant datasets here but nothing has come up.
Emotion 2: Hmm…okay, first try! Try again!
Touchpoint 3: Celine types ‘culture’ and sees 1 dataset, but that doesn’t seem relevant.
Pain point 3: A dataset is returned that doesn’t look immediately relevant.
Emotion 3: Although this isn’t going perfectly, Celine is aware that if ‘arts’ didn’t work then ‘culture’ probably wouldn’t either! Maybe getting a little frustrated but still keen to learn to use the site.
Touchpoint 4: Celine returns to the homepage to ‘Browse by theme’.
And so on…
Scenario 1: Updating existing Fire dataset.
Sam at Scottish Fire and Rescue Service has recently taken on responsibility for annually updating the ‘Fire – Type of Incident’ dataset on statistics.gov.scot. They’re on their laptop with this year’s data ready to go. Sam’s expecting a relatively smooth process, as their predecessor was generally positive about it.
Task: Map out the steps Sam would take to add the latest data to the existing dataset. Include the following:
- The overall goal.
- Sam’s touchpoints or interactions with the site.
- Anything that makes achieving the goal difficult.
- How Sam is feeling at each part of the journey.
Scenario 2: Providing research data.
Lia is a university researcher who is mid-way through a government-funded longitudinal study of migration patterns within Scotland. She has around forty years of data. As part of the funding agreement, the data needs to be made publicly available. She’s keen to publish the data on the statistics.gov.scot, with the aim of keeping it regularly updated. She’s never used the site before.
Task: As a prospective data provider, find out how to provide data to statistics.gov.scot. Map out the process, including:
- The overall goal.
- Lia’s touchpoints or interactions with the site.
- Anything that makes achieving the goal difficult.
- How Lia is feeling at each part of the journey.
Scenario 3: Crime rates for safety
Alex is planning to move and wants to find out about the safety of different neighbourhoods. She's seeking straightforward data that is easy to understand and to compare. Alex is fairly tech savvy and is using her ‘phone to access the site.
Task: Find some useful data around neighbourhood safety on statistics.gov.scot. Map out the process, including:
- The overall goal.
- Alex’s touchpoints or interactions with the site.
- Anything that makes achieving the goal difficult.
- How Alex is feeling at each part of the journey.
Scenario 4: Health statistics overview
Sofia is part of a local health awareness group in Aberdeenshire. She is looking for basic health and lifestyle statistics in her area to prepare for a healthy living campaign. She's browsing on her phone with limited internet skills.
Task: As Sofia, find some data on health in Scotland on statistics.gov.scot that will be useful for the campaign. Map out the process, including:
- The overall goal.
- Sofia’s touchpoints or interactions with the site.
- Anything that makes achieving the goal difficult.
- How Sofia is feeling at each part of the journey.
Scenario 5: Differences in pay
Devon is looking for the last ten years of data on differences in pay for men and women in Scotland. She wants to understand any change in Scotland overall, and the council areas with the largest changes (e.g. positive change, negative change). She’d also like to visualise the most recent data on the difference, by council area.
Task: Find data relating to differences in pay for men and women in Scotland on statistics.gov.scot, find out the stats on changes, and visualise the data on the gap in council areas. Map out the process, including:
- The overall goal.
- Devon’s touchpoints or interactions with the site.
- Anything that makes achieving the goal difficult.
- How Devon is feeling at each part of the journey.
Scenario 6: Onwards and upwards
Maia and her partner have recently retired and are looking to move out of Moray. They are prepared to move anywhere in Scotland and considering their options using data from statistics.gov.scot. One interesting point of comparison is how people rate their local services across the country.
Task: Using statistics.gov.scot, find data that will help in comparing local services across Scotland. A visualisation of some of the data may be helpful. Map out the process, including:
- The overall goal.
- Maia’s touchpoints or interactions with the site.
- Anything that makes achieving the goal difficult.
- How Maia is feeling at each part of the journey.
Scenario 7: Maintaining standards
Callum and his partner are thinking about moving house. They have two children who are in their first and second years at Falkirk High School, and they’re keen to move somewhere within Central Scotland with at least a similar reputation for educational achievement. They’re looking to gather recent data on this using statistics.gov.scot to help with their decision-making.
Task: Using statistics.gov.scot, find data related to educational achievement across Central Scotland. A visualisation of some of the data may be helpful. Map out the process, including:
- The overall goal.
- Their touchpoints or interactions with the site.
- Anything that makes achieving the goal difficult.
- How they are feeling at each part of the journey.
Scenario 8: Four in a bed
George runs a Bed and Breakfast in Huntly and is interested in the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the hospitality industry across Scotland. He is most interested in comparing the impacts on similar businesses such as hotels and guest houses.
Task: Using statistics.gov.scot, find data that could be used to understand the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Scottish hospitality industry, concentrating on accommodation. Map out the process, including:
- The overall goal.
- George’s touchpoints or interactions with the site.
- Anything that makes achieving the goal difficult.
- How George is feeling at each part of the journey.
Contact
Email: auren.clarke@gov.scot
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