Planning
OpenFederal will initially act as a search engine for Sunlight’s main tool properties (not that different from how Scout functions). To meet grant requirements, we need to include legislative and influence data on the same page. The main tools we’ll be including are: Congress API - https://sunlightlabs.github.io/congress/ Influence Explorer - http://sunlightlabs.github.io/datacommons/ Foreign Lobbying - Political Party Time - http://politicalpartytime.org/api/ Docket Wrench - http://sunlightlabs.github.io/sparerib/ Capitol Words - http://capitolwords.org/api/1/ House Expenditures - https://sunlightfoundation.com/tools/expenditures/ Ad Sleuth - http://politicaladsleuth.com/api-about/
While each of these tools solve specific needs and have specific data, there is value in being able to search across all of these tools at once.
Scout will continue to run on its own, we will not deal with this tool this year, although eventually OpenFederal will need an alert system like Scout.
User Flow for the Search Feature A user searches for something Returns a list of results [cards] from our tools Clicking on a search result [cards] takes them the tools page with that information
Keep in mind that users are used to simple search interfaces.
Wirestorming Invite all of Labs and Jenn from Comms Design will facilitate, while everyone else will break into 2-3 groups. We’ll first wirestorm together as a group to demonstrate how it’s done. We’ll assign tools to each group, based on people’s familiarity with the tools
Tools & Developer familiarity Congress API Clayton, Sam Capitol Words Sam Party Time Miles, Tim IE Bob, Andrew Ad Sleuth Bob Foreign Lobbying Bob, Rachel Docket Wrench Andrew House Expenditures Bob Senate Expenditures
Groups: All [Congress API] Nikki, Bob, Clayton, Tim, Jenn [Influence Explorer, Party Time, Ad Sleuth] Olivia, Andrew, Sam, Miles [House Expenditure, Capitol Words, Foreign Lobbying]
Roadmap 8/28 Wirestorming for result cards
Feedback Strategy
Foreign Lobbying
Country (india, etc) Client (embassy of india, etc) Foreign Agent (lobbyist, etc)
Congress API Clayton, Sam Capitol Words Sam Party Time Miles, Tim IE Bob, Andrew Ad Sleuth Bob Foreign Lobbying Bob, Rachel Docket Wrench Andrew House Expenditures Bob Senate Expenditures