by Ed Swires-Hennessy, Local Government Data Unit -
Wales
Ed continues his appraisals of different national Web
Sites to stimulate use of the Internet, share best practice and encourage debate.
This
month I visited the newly revised site of UK National Statistics, last reviewed after the
previous major revision in July 2000 (http://www.statistics.gov.uk).
The site retains the basic three-column format but is much more effectively presented with
some really thoughtful ideas for user access. The only downside on the home page is the
Statbox with its cycling headlines. Just miss one of the headlines and you have another
half a minute to wait for it to cycle round again: one of the stories appeared three times
on the home page on the day I visited! The simplification of the header (just over 1 kb
for the logo!) and the introduction of very economic headings on the top navigation for
the major areas of the site really help download and access times. Such simplification
– retaining the major areas and helps for the user – is a great credit to the
designers.
Within
the overall design the text size generally appears fixed – which disadvantages those
with impaired vision. Adjusting the text size via the browser has no impact on the main
pages but, if one does this on the Registration Service home page, all will increase in
size apart from the first paragraph. This site continues the modern trend to show
hyperlinks as normal text without underlining (apart from the foot of page navigation)
until the user hovers over the text when the underlining (and possibly change of colours)
appears: this is not as user-friendly as the standard underlining but does have a more
normal view to the pages.
Internal
navigation is simple, effective and efficient. Minor inconsistencies were found – but
then the site is very new. Much information is available for viewing through the Virtual
Bookshelf but in PDF files! Even one of the latest monitor files (MM24 for July 2002 on
External Trade) did not take advantage of the latest facilities within Adobe Acrobat to
give access to the vast arrays of data in a useable format. At the foot of the first table
in another monitor on the CPI for August 2002, an apparent link to a chart showing the
data does not work if the monitor is downloaded (and no warning is given to the user).
So
what about data? The absolutely basic information on the UK is in UK in Figures: not
obvious from the home page, I searched for it. Quickly found, I was told I could view,
download or order it. The GIF file was missing; left and right clicks to view or download
did not work. Following the link for more information did not help but offered some
instances of poor presentation.
My
next quest was for a basic time series of population data – not census information.
Under quick links on the home page, I chose ‘Time Series Data’; navigated
through lots of pages but couldn’t find any time series data on population. It could
have been in the Monthly Digest of Statistics but I gave up looking through the contents
list. Trying ‘Search’ again gave some links to population data – but the
typeface used in the table employed serifs and was much more difficult to read on screen. The data – only 1991, 1999 and 2000. Trying
another link took me to a population table from Population Trends – in a sans serif
typeface – and I had a time series. The header information for this table is
interesting both employing blue underlined text and emboldened text as links. The table
can be found quicker through the Index of Contents link on the home page.
The
claimant count series of the unemployed was easier to find through the Time Series Data
– but the resulting table presented numbers in yet another format.
Neighbourhood
statistics still has the old banner heading but the availability of data is vast, easy to
access and navigate. Some cogent thought will have to be given to the new data available
from the Census and other sources so that the user is not given a list of possibilities
that is too long and unstructured. A minor criticism here is the use of bright blue text
in several areas – none being hyperlinked. The full geographic search of information
is brilliant and can only be improved with a greater provision of data: I hope the system
does not crash when the Census data is online.
The
site is a vast improvement on the last edition. Inconsistencies need to be addressed and
PDF data files banished or, as a minimum, have Excel versions accessible. Much more
thought has been given to structuring and linking information.
This
review was undertaken using Internet Explorer version 5.0 on 3 October at 10.00 hrs GMT
using a 256 Kbit link to the Internet on a Pentium III 866 MHz machine.
Please
send and comments and suggestions for sites to review to