ADR-006 Use GOV.UK Eleventy Plugin for user documentation and Data Platform front door
Status
✅ Accepted
Context
Users, prospective users and stakeholders of the Data Platform need a way to start their user journeys onto the platform so that they can access and use it.
We want to adhere to the GOV.UK design system in providing this, and make it as self-service as possible to streamline the user journeys and minimise reliance on support.
Decision
We are proposing to use the GOV.UK Eleventy Plugin to host a ‘front door’ that provides user guidance and communications updates (eg. blog posts) for users, prospective users and stakeholders of the Data Platform.
The front door is not the Data Platform itself, but an information portal that collates essential documentation and resources for using the Data Platform.
For our information architecture, we are drawing inspiration from the AWS documentation.
For our content design, we are drawing inspiration from GOV.UK Pay and GOV.UK Notify, though we must provide users the ability to search content from any page on the site.
Consequences
General consequences
- We use the GOV.UK Eleventy Plugin to host all user-facing comms and documentation
- We host the front door on a separate repository from the Data Platform itself
- We host internal (ie. Data Platform team-facing) documentation on a separate site from the front door
- Depending on how the Analytical Platform fits into the Data Platform, we may migrate the Analytical Platform User Guidance into the front door
Advantages
- Single source of truth for users that mitigates duplicating or fragmenting content
- Uses GOV.UK front end
- Compatible with GOV.UK design system components
- Lightweight markup tool
- Flexible navigation can accommodate complex information architecture
- Includes page layouts for comms such as blog posts
- Can preview changes locally before pushing to repository
Disadvantages
- Limited support for GOV.UK Eleventy Plugin