Point 4 of the Service Standard requires that you "make services simple to use" – and that applies to spreadsheet templates too, so let's start the conversation about how to do spreadsheet templates well. If you're going to use a spreadsheet template in your service, there are a few design accommodations that you can make to improve the experience for users.

We've seen the challenges that pop up when relying on spreadsheet templates and the resulting frustration from users when they are forced to grapple with submitting their data using one.

We've come to a worrying conclusion: asking users to fill out spreadsheet templates in the way we do it today does not meet user needs and should not be used as a design pattern in usable and accessible government services.

This article aims to clarify what we believe the key aspects of being a Data Architect are, based on our experience, shedding light on the various skills and tasks that data architects undertake to enable effective data utilisation and decision-making.

Do you really know what data you have, and where it all is? Are you confident how to interpret the data you have, and when you want some data, do you know where to look? If not, here are our best practices for not being overwhelmed by data.

Whenever you work with data, you will invariably want to move it somewhere, be it to a different location, application or even just a different format. With this process there can be a variety of challenges and so in this article, we will walk through four of the main challenges when dealing with data migration.

Have you taken the time to carefully select a data management tool for your staff and organisation to use, but are finding that hardly anyone uses it and that the uptake is fairly low? This article aims to explore why this might be happening in order to help us understand what can then be done about it.

Does your organisation suffer from data silos? Have you noticed the impact this is having on your organisation and are you keen to stop this? If so, hopefully these tips will help to give you some ideas and options on how to break down data silos and to get your organisation working more effectively.

Does your organisation have data silos? Getting rid of data silos can make a big difference to an organisation but first we need to understand what they are and how they can be dangerous to ignore.