Why have things changed?

Don't worry, we have approached the re-design with familiarity in mind. If you are familiar with the current site, you will be able to use the new one with ease. Your sign-in details, all of your saved queries, definitions and lists work just as before.

We have a responsibility to ensure that our site is as inclusive as possible for people of all abilities, so we have made many changes to the way that our site works to help those who face challenges with vision or motor skills or other accessibility issues.

Alongside these changes, we have taken the opportunity to add several new features and to refresh the style of our site so that it works well with modern web browsers and devices.

Summary of changes

Cleaner more modern design

The site has a new cleaner, more modern look and behind the scenes has been geared up to help improve the experience for everyone whilst retaining all of the navigation and facilities that you are already familiar with.

Single query with guidance

We have merged the Wizard and Advanced query. The "Next" and "Back" buttons of the Wizard are available as "step-by-step guidance" which can be turned on and off whenever you need it.

The Query no longer opens in a popup window; you can navigate away to other parts of the site and will resume your query when you return.

Other new features

There are a host of new features available to make the web site even easier to use, from new maps to helpful context sensitive tips and new selection tools.

New Query features in detail

New maps

Our new maps are clearer and faster than before, offering much more interactivity. We have enhanced our map-based output too.

Map-based hierarchical area selection (experimental)

Select areas using a hierarchical map. Start at UK level and drill down all the way to Output Areas (where available) selecting areas along the way.

Release dates and revisions information

Details of when each dataset was first released and last updated are shown when you first select the dataset. This panel will also show details of any revisions made with comments where applicable.

Tips

For new users, we have introduced a series of tips to help get started. These tips appear at various times whilst using the site and point out the basics. For those who do not need tips, they can be easily turned off.

Checkbox range selection

You can shift-click ranges of checkboxes to select all those between, this is much faster than clicking each one individually. To do this, simply click the first checkbox, press and hold the SHIFT key, then move your pointer to the last checkbox in the range. Checkboxes in the range will become highlighted in yellow; now click the last checkbox to tick or un-tick them all.

Custom list ordering

Change the order that selections appear in your downloads. Drag-and-drop reordering on most lists is on the "review selections" page.

Other changes to the site in general

New accessible design

Text is larger and more readable, layouts respond to different sizes of browser and devices and colours are carefully chosen to meet international standards for contrast.

Pages are designed to work well for those who only have use of a keyboard and we have adopted the UK Government Access keys.

Controls such as checkboxes and text boxes are linked to their descriptive labels so that screen-readers for those with vision difficulties can present pages in a meaningful way.

Search (experimental)

We have indexed all the selections available from all of our datasets and made them searchable. Use the "Search Nomis..." box to search and find datasets containing relevant matches.

Comprehensive menus and breadcrumbs

No matter where you are on our site, you will have access to a common menu that can be used to get you quickly to any other section of the site. Your current location is shown beneath the menu as breadcrumbs so that you know exactly where you are.

Information side panel

When you view more information about something (clicking the info icons for example) it will appear in an information panel in the bottom right of the browser window.

Further new developments

This update is part of an ongoing series of improvements and enhancements to our service. We welcome and appreciate your feedback, which can be given via our support email.