Following our discovery phase recommendation that the Welsh Government completely replace their data publishing platform, we were asked to identify the most promising solutions to test with users.
The Welsh Government’s Knowledge and Analytical Services (KAS) is the unit which provides expert advice and insight on a range of policy areas. They produce evidence-based research and analysis to inform decision-making. As a part of this work, they manage StatsWales, the official data publishing service for the Welsh Government. In late 2022, they asked us to conduct a discovery into their needs and requirements for replacing the service. We validated the need to replace the service and recommend a plan for delivery.
Following the discovery, KAS implemented our recommendation that they ‘should create a new service to make Welsh statistical data more easily available to help improve life in Wales’. While we had identified 70 user needs the new service needed to meet, there were many different ways these goals could be achieved in an Alpha phase. We needed to test and validate which of the most promising solutions would produce the best outcomes for further development in Beta.
We initially identified our riskiest assumptions, which we wanted to prove or disprove in Alpha, to ensure we were travelling in the right direction. Could we develop a simple, intuitive and feasible way to:
We explored different solutions through a mixture of collaborative ideation workshops, functional prototypes and technical proof-of-concepts. The most promising approaches were validated through user testing across 3 rounds of testing with 18 real service users.
In addition, the team conducted a detailed analysis of the existing StatsWales data, understanding what constraints and limitations we needed to address through development. With a particular eye on migrating the existing data to the new service.
Because KAS have a legal obligation to publish their data in the open, it was critical that we both migrate all of the existing data from the previous service, while also ensuring continuity during the transition to the new service. So we decided to refine the current data architecture, rather than redesigning it from scratch, meaning we could migrate safely and effectively. However, we could still introduce innovative new features, such as introducing service-wide standardised data (such as for dates and geographical areas) to reduce effort and duplication, and increase consistency across the site.
Another challenge was that the Welsh government aren’t quite as far ahead on their digital transformation as, for example, GOV.UK. They’ve taken a series of fantastic steps, including introducing the Welsh Digital Service Standard, however some of the supporting processes and services are under development – such as their service assessment process.
To help further this transformation, we nominated ourselves to pilot the assessment process for the Welsh Government’s Centre for Digital Public Services (CDPS) team. As our team have experience of passing over 15 GOV.UK assessments, we were able to share our knowledge and experience to help CDPS refine their own process. We went the process together, confirming our service met the standards. Although we both expected the assessment process to be shorter than the usual 4 hour GOV.UK assessment, we learnt you always need a significant amount of time to get into the detail of how a service works and how it was designed and tested.
Lastly, all Welsh government services must be available equally in Welsh and English, and we were committed to designing and building bilingually. To help recruit Welsh speakers for user testing we:
These methods meant we could eventually develop a participant list of Welsh language speakers we’ll be conducting user research with throughout Beta.
Over the 8 weeks of Alpha we were able to validated our riskiest assumptions and identify what we should develop in Beta. Including the most promising solutions for data providers to import and process their data for publication, and for data consumers to find and view that data.
Our new approach of implementing service-wide standardised data will mean teams will be able to avoid reprocessing the similar data every time. This will not only reduce the time to create new datasets, but also increase consistency and the ability to cross-reference different datasets.
We've produced a 12 month roadmap for delivery, starting with a Private Beta where we'll share an early version of the service to a small group of users so we can begin gathering feedback from users within a controlled environment. This will be followed by a Public Beta where we'll open the service up to all users, once we have full confidence in its performance.
Lastly, and certainly not least, we passed our Alpha service assessment with flying colours. The CDPS team said they “were impressed by the work completed” and “the findings in the report celebrate the key successes of this Alpha phase”. Additionally, regarding our work towards building a bilingual service they praised our “good use of internationalisation patterns and best practices for language design”, acknowledging “a lot of effort to recruit and engage with Welsh language users throughout“.
You can read CDPS's blog where they share their positive experiences of the assessment process with our team. Government Transformation Magazine also celebrated our user-first approach for this service in their deep-dive into UK government data maturity.
"I have been very impressed with all the work to date, and it was a great experience for us to run through a real service being developed by such an amazing team and supplier." Joanna Goodwin, Head of User Centred Design and Delivery, Welsh Government
"The team have worked hard to make sure the service helps users achieve their goal in the simplest way possible so they can succeed first time." Assessment panel, Welsh Government
Thanks to this solid groundwork, the team are now working through the Beta phase, building out the key journeys explored in Alpha. We're working through the design, test, iterate, build process for each of the additional user journeys required to deliver the Minimum Viable Product (MVP).
Once the MVP is ready, we’ll be releasing a Private Beta of the new service, to a limited selection of users. This will enable us to test and improve the service within a real life setting, before opening the service up to all users as part of the Public Beta later in 2025.
Whether you’re ready to start your project now or you just want to talk things through, we’d love to hear from you.
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