Some suggestions

[ravenseft]

I've just stumbled upon your website by chance and wanted to let you
have my feedback and suggestions regarding its functionality. I would
first like to say what a good idea I think it is to have the older
editions of Hansard available online, particularly as the paper
versions are becoming more difficult to track down in public
libraries.

My suggestions:
- you are linking almost every reference to legislation (including EU
laws) to the Statute Law Database; this is not a good idea as the
content is not always available there (certainly not with EU law). If
you must link - EU laws should go to EUR-LEX, and references to
post-1988 laws to the OPSI site;

- to distinguish between different contributors to a debate, each
contribution should have a different coloured background to the next;

- each contributor should be identified by party allegiance, seat and
(where applicable) post;

- the search function should be honed to enable searches by a
particular time period, bill, type of sitting, House and MP;

- where there is a reference to an earlier speech in Hansard, there
should be a link to that speech;

- the "show earliest first" button at the top of searches does not
function properly - it only works (for me on a pc using i.e. 7) when I
click on an area to the right of the button. This button should be
replaced with the usual search functions typically available, i.e. not
only earliest first, but also reverse order, most relevant results
first, etc;

- the website should have an enhanced "browse" facility, enabling a
user not only to look at results by decade (and then year, date, etc),
but to browse Commons debates, Lords debates, Written Answers and
Written Ministerial Statements;

- for each year, it would be useful to have a combined alphabetical
index of the business transacted in each house, with links to the
relevant page;

- linked to the above suggestion, it would be to have an index to
bills, with the possibility of clicking on one and following its
passage through Parliament. For example, I want to find the Transport
Act 1962, and an entry on the index would take me to when the bill was
first introduced, through the debates and amendments, right up to its
passing;

- one final minor point, the button "link to this speech" could be
much smaller and added next to the name of the person speaking. The
button "link to this column" could be itself smaller and instead be
renamed "link to column xxx".

I hope the above is of some use to you.

[Robert Brook]

Firstly: thank you for taking the time to write in. We really
appreciate it.

Links to the Statue Law Database: your suggestions are very useful.
We're still writing code and it'll take some time to deploy: we've
already taken some of your points on board. The presently deployed
site is rather open about what it expects to find at the other end of
a link. We're gradually constraining that. It would be wonderful if
there was an API to access certain sites ... we're talking to various
people!

Why should only post-1988 laws link to the Statute Law database? ( Am
I missing something obvious? )

'Zebra-striping' contributions: we've had a go with this, but it just
didn't look right. Some contributions are rather lengthy - and a
coloured background didn't seem to add anything. We'll take another
look.

Identification of contributors: were the original text includes
information such as party, constituency or post, we do include it.
We're considering how to present further information that isn't
immediately evident. A rather obvious example: Margaret Thatcher, Mrs.
Thatcher, and the Prime Minister are all the same speaker. Sometimes.

Further search faceting: search results can already be restricted to a
particular House or speaker. We've just not made it very obvious! It's
an area we're still working on.

References to previous speeches: good idea. We'll take a look.

'Show earliest first' button not working as expected: yes, we'll take
a look at that.

Enhanced browse facility, indices of business: they'll both go on the
list.

Index of bills, smaller 'link to this speech/column: we've written the
code for both, but not deployed it yet.

Apologies for the telegraphic response. More details to follow.

[Jackie]

Hi Robert

Just been catching up with the posts. The email from ravenseft
mentions the Statute Law Database and OPSI website. The distinction
is that the SLD contains all Acts still in force, so if an Act has
been consolidated or repealed then it wont appear in SLD. Also the Act
that appears on SLD is the Act as it exists now (including
amendments). OPSI has the Acts as they were passed by parliament -
the original version of the Act but only from 1988.

Culd like to both where available? Act as passed on OPSI and Act in
force on SLD?

Jackie

[ravenseft]

Thanks for taking the time to reply to my suggestions. To expand on
the points you raised:-

- At present OPSI only goes back as far as 1988 (http://
www.opsi.gov.uk/about/faqs-opsi-website.htm#f). I suggested it as an
alternative to the Statute Law Database (SLD) because it contains the
full text of the measure in question whilst the SLD removes
legislation when it is repealed. See for example the European
Communities (Finance) Act 1988 which is available on OPSI and not SLD,
and the The Parish and Community Meetings (Polls) Rules 1987, examples
of both primary and secondary legislation.

- I was impressed by the use of 'zebra-striping' when I saw it
implemented on the theyworkforyou.com website which uses a slightly
smaller font than your site. I think it makes the debate easier to
follow, easier on the eye and more inviting to a reader than a block
of black text against a white background.

- Identification of contributions would certainly require extra work
in the sense that it would mean adding what is not already there in
Hansard, but I believe it would be a useful (perhaps essential)
addition; otherwise for the uninformed reader the debate would be a
rather anodine discussion between faceless individuals. One solution,
if it's at all technically possible, would be to somehow link the name
of the contributor to an index of Members (one must exist at least on
paper?) which, from the date of the particular debate, would provide
their status at that date.

[Robert Brook]

Hello again!

Thanks for making the OPSI/SLD thing clear. The latest - not-yet-
public - version of the code links to neither. We're aggregating
information about a Bill/Act mention on one page and seeing what that
looks like for a while.

Zebra-striping may still make an appearance. We'll try it out locally.
Clearly, we're not designers - and certainly hasn't given much thought
as to how to make the site 'inviting'.

As to linking to information not presently in the source material,
we're initially inviting internal users to consider the preferable
course of action. There are, of course, several indices of Members.
Some more official than others!

On Apr 4, 8:14 pm, ravenseft <pemb...@blueyonder.co.uk> wrote:
> Thanks for taking the time to reply to my suggestions. To expand on
> the points you raised:-
>

> - At present OPSI only goes back as far as 1988 (http://www.opsi.gov.uk/about/faqs-opsi-website.htm#f). I suggested it as an

[Robert Brook]

A little more on zebra-striping: http://www.alistapart.com/articles/zebrastripingdoesithelp

"This experiment yielded no evidence that zebra striping consistently
improves the accuracy or speed of tasks. This would seem to suggest
that we shouldn’t bother with zebra striping anymore."

An interesting study: but this doesn't necessarily mean that we'll
decide not to zebra-stripe ourselves.