Information systems – public facing and internal

What this means for the Citizens Advice Information Team is that there is now a need to produce two information systems, Adviceguide the public access website and Advisernet, the online system available to CAB advisers on the intranet. A version of Advisernet is also available on CD and is sold to other advice agencies. Advisernet provides trained advisers with the information they need to help clients who are able to visit or telephone CABs.

Defining and satisfying the information needs of two distinct groups of users is a challenge. Both systems cover the same range of subjects, but the level, the organisation, the presentation and the retrieval of the information is differentiated to ensure that it is appropriate for the users.

Classification scheme for Advisernet

A quick look at the top level of the classification system of Advisernet gives an idea of the scope of the information. Information is divided into 14 broad categories (See Figure 1).

Figure 1:

Advisernet classification top terms.

The spread of these categories represents the spread of subjects that CABs are called upon for advice. CABs are generalist advice agencies. This distinguishes us from niche subject agencies which only provide information on, for example, housing. The classification system is an in-house system which has developed over about 40 years in response to the information needs of CABs. It has been used as the basis for other voluntary sector schemes, because of the wide subject coverage. The classification system has three levels (See Figure 2).

Figure 2:

Levels of classification scheme.

This is a system designed for trained advisers who are expected to know their income-related benefits from their contributory benefits.

The Advisernet classification system is very pragmatic. It is based around the known needs of CABs and it is responsive to changes in the law. When discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation was recognised in law a new category was added and when a benefit disappears a category is deleted. Sometimes a whole new subject appears, for example, identity cards. This can trigger a departmental debate. Should ID cards be added to the Passports section because they are in some ways similar to passports, should they be added to the Immigration section as they are currently affecting overseas nationals coming into the country or was the appropriate section the Civil Rights section along with information on data protection and privacy? It was decided that Civil Rights was the right place.

There is a body of opinion which claims that a classification structure is no longer important for web-based information. The suggestion is that we should follow the Adviceguide route and just organise the information into broad groupings. Few advisers search for information by drilling down through the classification hierarchy. In the past the information was held in paper files so that users could see documents on related subjects being physically filed next to each other. They no longer have that sense, and it is argued that users find documents by the index or by searching, so does it matter how they are organised?

For a system as big and as inter-linked as Advisernet it does matter. It matters for two main reasons. The first reason is that it allows staff working on the system to retain and develop a sense of the coverage of a subject area. It is possible to see quickly what information there is on e.g. taking a case to the civil courts, and to make judgements on what other information is needed on this subject, and to think about how it relates to legal aid. The information is not just a filing system for randomly collected pieces of information, it is a coherent system of inter-linking units where one section can add value to another.

The second reason is that a classification system also makes it possible to deal with broad subjects that have implications throughout the system, for example discrimination and human rights. Enabling people to access their human rights is a principle underlying all the information and the classification system makes a place for core documents on the principles of human rights law and discrimination, whilst at the same time making it possible to include specific and tactical information in the subject areas. This means that an adviser helping a client with homelessness procedures can be alerted to the possibility that a human rights argument could help their client. In the same way discrimination, access to employment, transport and housing for disabled people, are covered in the relevant places in the information, rather than in one document on the rights of disabled people. This is important as it avoids the assumption that a disabled person has a specific set of disability related problems. A disabled person may be just as likely to need information about separation and divorce as they are to need information on community care. The classification system makes clear the values underpinning the whole information system.

Classification scheme for Adviceguide

The much smaller public site, Adviceguide, does not have all those considerations, but this system is growing fast and, as it grows, the need to organise information hierarchically rather than all on one level has to be considered. At the moment users can see at a glance how a subject is covered, as it is organised into much more familiar groups (see Figure 3).

Figure 3:

Adviceguide home page.

Users are not expected to work down through a hierarchy. The information on benefits is grouped into user groups, for example, Benefits for Families, Benefits for People who are Sick or Disabled. This makes it possible for users who do not know the name of the specific benefits to track down what they need. The addition of more material will lead to the sub-division of existing categories, which needs to be done without sacrificing the existing clarity of organisation. There is also a move towards the provision of information in different formats, for example, fact sheets, frequently asked questions and even videos, so a robust system of subject categories is an important way for users to see the full range of information available on a subject.

Index

On both the sites information can be found using a search and an index. The index is sometimes viewed, in the same way as a classification system, as a thing of the past. This is not true for Advisernet users. The most recent survey showed that CAB workers are very happy to use the index. It is compiled manually by analysing the documents and identifying the specific pieces of information which the index should point to. There would be no value in this index picking up every reference to, for example, pension credit, when what the users need is to be directed to a range of specific points about the benefit. Once the adviser has been sent to a specific document, cross references within the document will link through to other documents.

The index provides the starting point for the journey through the information, and Figure 4 shows the index entry for pension credit.

Figure 4:

Advisernet index – pension credit

The index is also a way for advisers to appreciate the wide range of information that is available on specific subjects. An adviser might not have realised that so many issues were relevant for transgender people. An index entry like this can act as a checklist for aspects of the subject covered in the information.

Search

If search is used to locate information on pension credit 445 references are found, leaving the user to identify which document is most useful. The search is full text but it is weighted towards terms appearing in the document titles, headings, document summaries and keywords. This does mean that the most relevant document appears at the top of the search results list, but the number of matches can be daunting.

The search is a more popular option on Adviceguide. Users may have arrived at the site from Google and searching on the site is the next step. For Adviceguide there is a case for carefully defined broader terms because options can be relevant to users of Adviceguide, who are often less specific about what information they want. It may be useful for a member of the public who searches for free prescriptions to also be given information about help with eye tests and dental charges as they may not have known about this further help.

Thesaurus

A thesaurus was constructed to support the search on Advisernet. This was built to include broader terms, narrower terms and synonyms. Currently only the synonyms function is in use. It was found that using broader and narrower terms was not helpful because too many results were pulled up. Prescription charges is a narrower term of health charges and it was not helpful for an adviser who wanted information on prescription charges to be offered a whole range of information on health charges generally.

The synonym tool has been very important. This has been compiled manually and links together a range of terms which an adviser could be expected to use as search terms. The aim is to enable a user to retrieve documents even when their search term does not use the terminology used in the document. It is impossible to second guess the search terms of every user, but there are three factors that commonly create the need for a range of terms to be linked. There is the difference between an official name and the generally used name, for example, vehicle excise duty and road tax. There are the situations where there is a range of accepted terminology, for example, single parent, one-parent family or lone parent. Also it is important to link abbreviations to the full name so that a user looking for HB is going to find the housing benefit information. In all those circumstances there is a need to ensure consistency of retrieval despite a variety of search term used. The development of the synonyms tool is constant and is driven by user feedback.