ONS Local has been established by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) to support evidence-based decision-making at the local level. We aim to host insightful events that connect our users with exciting developments happening in subnational statistics and analysis at the ONS and across other organisations. Are you interested in finding, visualising, comparing and downloading a wide range of geographically granular datasets in one place? If so, this webinar is definitely for you! We will present ONS plans for the development of Explore Subnational Statistics (ESS), a public-facing digital service that will allow users to find out more about local areas across the UK. We will retrace the main milestones in our journey to date, starting from the launch of ESS vision in the GSS subnational data strategy, then taking a closer look at the Subnational Indicators Explorer, and, finally, outlining a roadmap towards the Beta version of the service. This event is open to all, however we anticipate it will be of most interest to anyone working at a local level, with data on the policy themes of economy, transport connectivity, education, skills, health and wellbeing, or interested in data visualisation products. If you have any questions, please contact onslocal@ons.gov.uk

1. ONS Local presents:
Explore Subnational
Statistics
Sofia Calzavara
ESS product owner
Subnational Statistics and Analysis
21 June 2023
Rob Fry
Service Owner – Advanced
Content & Co-creation
Ahmad Barclay
Data Visualisation Lead
Digital Publishing

2. Join our Slido !
Later on we will be using Slido to get your views on what we will be presenting today.
To join, either:
1. Go to slido.com and enter the event code #1772412
2. Click on this link - https://app.sli.do/event/aQGThN7HLueSPz7BvYqurg
You can also use the Q&A section in Slido to ask questions if you prefer / are not
able to use the chat in Teams.
2

3. Agenda
• Explore Subnational Statistics
• Current journey and area content
• User needs
• Functionalities
• User journeys
• UX journey prototype
• Semi-automated narratives
3

4. Explore Subnational
Statistics
4

5. GSS Subnational Data Strategy ambitions
Produce more timely, granular and harmonised subnational statistics
Build capability and capacity for subnational statistics and analysis
Improve the dissemination of subnational statistics
A framework to guide the GSS in producing and disseminating more timely,
granular and harmonised subnational statistics, that meet user needs
GSS subnational data strategy – Government Analysis Function

6. Explore Subnational Statistics (ESS)
What?
A statistical dissemination service
Why?
Find out more about local areas across the UK
How?
Find, visualise, compare and download subnational data in one place
Who?
Expert analysts and policy influencers in local and central Government
Inquiring citizens
6

7. Subnational indicators explorer and Subnational indicators dataset
Subnational indicators explorer
What?
An interactive tool with 30+ indicators
Two datasets with 41 indicators
Why?
Transparent access to publicly available levelling
up related data in one place
How?
Using the median absolute deviation,
compare a local authority against the median and
up to 3 other local authorities

8. Our journey since launching ESS vision
ESS Alpha live and iterated
ESS Beta designs
and UR
ESS Alpha
development
ESS
Discovery
ESS Beta development and UR
Dec 21 Feb 22
GSS
subnational
data
strategy
launched
1st SIE
iteration
25 indicators
in total,
21 displayed
May 22
2nd SIE
iteration
27 indicators
in total,
23 displayed.
Added
region and
country data
in datasets.
[…] Mar 23
5th iteration
41 indicators in total,
34 displayed
ESS Beta MVP
• 25 datasets in IDS
Data Explorer
• 2 rich content
private prototypes
• GVA data in
NOMIS APIs
Jun 23
6th iteration
41 indicators in total,
34 displayed
ESS Beta
• 41 datasets in IDS Data Explorer
• More geographies available on
Area Hub
• Public-facing prototypes page
• Private prototype of semi-
automated bulletin
• User research with local gov users
Mar 24
Complete
ESS Beta
development
[…]
8

9. 9
Current journey and
area content

10. 10
Current content
• Range of content created in a Census
context
• User journey allows users to get to area
specific content
Limitations
• Limited range of content covered
• No route to data

11. 11
Functionalities not covered by current content
Wider user journey
• How people discover and navigate between “products”.
Change over time
• Explore trends in data over the shorter and longer term.
Area comparisons
• Compare to national/regional/local benchmarks.
Insights
• What is the story in the data?

12. 12
User needs

13. 13
User personas
Technical
user
I like to play
with data and
technology
Expert
analyst
I live and
breathe data
and statistics
Policy
influencer
It’s hard to find
the information I
need
Information
forager
I have a need to
find trustworthy
data and insight
Inquiring
citizen
I want to form my
own opinion
based on fact
Passive
citizen
I rely on the
media to be
kept informed

14. 14
User personas
Technical
user
I like to play
with data and
technology
Expert
analyst
I live and
breathe data
and statistics
Policy
influencer
It’s hard to find
the information I
need
Information
forager
I have a need to
find trustworthy
data and insight
Inquiring
citizen
I want to form my
own opinion
based on fact
Passive
citizen
I rely on the
media to be
kept informed
1.
Get the
idea
2.
Get the
idea &
explore
3.
Get the
detail &
data

15. 15
1. Get the idea
• See headline insights and geographic patterns.
2. Get the idea & explore
• Explore area comparisons and trends over time.
3. Get the detail & data
• Drill down into specific topics. Download the data.

16. 16
Functionalities

17. 17
Desired functionalities
Find
By area name
By standard geographies
Search on a map
Search using browser
Search via ONS search bar
By a customer-defined area
Visualise
All available topics
All datasets available
Data on static chart
Original data source
Quality information
Timeseries
History of dataset updates
Geographical changes
Compare
Against national average
Against other areas
Against other geographies
Download
Data previously selected
Data for multiple areas
Data for multiple periods
Data for multiple datasets
Different file formats
Share static chart via a link
A static chart
API integration

18. 18
User journeys

19. 19

20. 20
Landing
page
Search
Topics/
indicators
Areas
Download
Share/
embed
(Re)use
Explore
Discover

21. 21
UX journey prototype

22. 22 UX journey prototype

23. 23 UX journey prototype

24. 24 UX journey prototype

25. 25 UX journey prototype

26. 26 UX journey prototype

27. 27
Semi-automated
narratives
(aka robo-journalism)

28. 28
What is robo-journalism?
• Text and vis change according to the data
• Relevant to the selected area or characteristic
• Can embed in a standard article or have a unique
URL per area
• Answers what is the story in the data?
• Time poor users & aides interpretation

29. 29
What isn’t robo-journalism?
• Fully automated. Still needs analysts / statisticians
to interpret data and craft content
• Can’t answer every question a user might have
about data / topic
• Something geared towards analysts

30. 30
User personas
Technical
user
I like to play
with data and
technology
Expert
analyst
I live and
breathe data
and statistics
Policy
influencer
It’s hard to find
the information I
need
Information
forager
I have a need to
find trustworthy
data and insight
Inquiring
citizen
I want to form my
own opinion
based on fact
Passive
citizen
I rely on the
media to be
kept informed
1.
Get the
idea
2.
Get the
idea &
explore
3.
Get the
detail &
data

31. 31
What is robo-journalism?

32. 32
Comparisons
• Prototypes typically compare selected area to its region.
• Can also use area classifications, eg supergroups, groups,
subgroups

33. 33
Benefits of approach
• Contextualises the data by highlighting relevant parts of the analysis
• Can answer “is that a big number?”
• Natural language - text is suitable for the chosen area based on pre-set
parameters, eg “in Wolverhampton, on the Isle of Wight”
• Guides users through the data, adding important explanations where
needed instead of users trying to figure out a table
• Works for search engines / language models / text-to-speech
• Avoids mis-interpretation
• But most importantly, keeps the selected area and relevant
comparisons in focus throughout

34. Time for Slido !
To join, either:
1. Go to slido.com and enter the event code #1772412
2. Click on this link - https://app.sli.do/event/aQGThN7HLueSPz7BvYqurg

35. Thank you!
If you want to get in touch and/or be part of user research for
our Explore Subnational Statistics, please get in touch
at subnational@ons.gov.uk