New homepage for TheyWorkForYou

Visit TheyWorkForYou’s homepage today, and you’ll see big changes.

For some time now, we’ve been working on rolling improvements to TheyWorkForYou’s design, starting with MPs’ and Lords’ profile pages and voting records.

These pages being the most visited, it made sense – but it did leave us with a shop window that did no justice to the goods within.

High time for a new front page

TheyWorkForYou’s homepage had not changed all that much since the site began in 2004: as new content such as committees or the devolved parliaments were added in, they simply got squeezed in wherever they would fit.

This is the first time in a good few years that we’ve taken a step back, started again with a blank canvas and prioritised what’s important.

Simpler, leaner, better-looking

It tells you what the site is for

Consistently, a good 60% of our users are first-time visitors to the site, so we need to make it very clear exactly what we do, and why they should care.

It helps you find your MP’s information

78% of the UK population don’t know the name of their MP (presumably that’ll be even higher for a while, post-election!). That’s why a postcode box, which matches you to your MP—and not a search box—is the most prominent input on the page.

It highlights current affairs

We know from experience that a large proportion of our users’ searches are based around issues that have just hit the headlines, whether that’s the latest budget, a ding-dong at Prime Minister’s questions, or a big news story.

It’s not always obvious to a casual observer where to find the relevant debates: for example, in Hansard (the official record of Parliament, which is where our content comes from) the budget is called the ‘Autumn Statement’, while Prime Minister’s Questions is labelled ‘Engagements’.

So now we have space to signpost the content that most visitors are likely to be looking for.

It encourages you to subscribe to activity

In a secondary but still prominent position, we signal that you can sign up for email alerts whenever your chosen MP speaks or your chosen keyword is mentioned. We hope that this will encourage still more people to engage on the things that matter to them.

It offers other paths in to content

If you’re just browsing, there’s still plenty of chance to see what’s new. Recent activity from Parliament is showcased on the lower half of the page, or you can riffle through all the different parliaments and types of debate in the top menu.

A fitting gateway

TheyWorkForYou still has all the same content, but now it has a homepage to be proud of, too.

That homepage is still a gateway into rich data: an archive of searchable, shareable, readable debates going back to the 1930s, profiles and voting records for MPs and Lords both current and historic, and the calendar of upcoming events.

With this new design, though, it should all be much easier to find. We hope you like it.