Pilot stage

Overall goal of this doc: agree upon feature set - minimize surprises.

Bold means an addition or change that needs review

Pilot scope

What are the core services we want the eRegs pilot to offer to fulfill stakeholder needs?

What do we need to provide to deliver that?

Web application fundamentals

Focus:

• Site meets accessibility requirements
• Site works or gracefully degrades on browsers CMS staff use
• Site is responsive for various sizes of screen
• There's a way for people using this to give us feedback, suggestions, report bugs, etc
• Mobile view works for reading reg text
• There is basic print styling for reg content
• [Maybe? Trying to find out] Some way to ensure it's not fully public at this stage

Not in pilot:

• Mobile view with usable access to full features
• Site uses best practices for SEO

Content that people trust

Focus:

• Use eCFR content (rewrite parser)
• Display appropriate disclaimer always
• Include Federal Register rule references from the CFR at the ends of sections
• Indenting that matches eCFR and the book (indent for each new paragraph, no indent for nested paragraphs)
  • Proposed revision: Nested paragraphs are indented
• Website tells you when reg content was last updated
• Paragraph identifier style matches official reg style (parentheses)
• Footnotes, formulas, and tables are readable
• Include "Authority", "Scope", and "Editorial Note" info from the CFR
  • But these can just be copied into reg part homepages as custom content, instead of needing to be automated

Not in pilot:

• Regulations outside Title 42 relevant to Medicaid and CHIP (such as Title 45 Part 95)

Usable navigation of parts, subparts, and sections

Focus:

• Each paragraph can be independently referenced by an anchor link in the URL
• Date of content is visibly displayed
• Default view of reg content is by subpart, with full part view as a fallback when needed (such as sections that aren't within a subpart)
• Within a part, you can "jump to section"
  • Also jump to other parts?
• For any specific reg content you're looking at (more specific than a part), there's a "next" and "previous" button
• In any content view, you can see location information (including both the part number and the part name)
• You can toggle collapsing and expanding subparts in the Table of Contents in the left nav sidebar
• You can collapse the left nav sidebar
• The reg part homepage center column can have a table of contents for the latest version, marked with the version/date of the content
• Each reg part homepage can have custom content in the center and right columns
• While reading reg content, there's a way to see an expanded Table of Contents for that part, for skimming
• There's a way to copy the URL (that's not just copying the URL bar)
• When you receive a link to a specific piece of reg on eRegs, the text you were linked to is highlighted (in an unobtrusive way)
• Each reg part homepage displays an automated list of recent changes (recent rules) affecting the part
  • Should this also have a list of proposed changes affecting the part?
• Print button for the reg content you're looking at

Not in pilot:

• View reg content by section
• eRegs tracks and keeps a list of where you've been and helps you get back to what you've seen (local history, no auth)
• People can add lightweight "bookmarks" for reg pieces that are saved locally

Integration of key supplemental content in context with regs

Focus:

• Ability to display supplemental content that has a link, a title, a category, one or many section + date pairs, and [TBD: what else]
• A policy SME can write content in a structured way that the system can incorporate (reflecting the content model) [TBD: implementation]
• Categories of supplemental content have names, weight, and descriptions (captions)
• Automated list of related rules

Not in pilot:

• Supplemental content relates to regulation versions
• A set of reg part homepage custom content is associated with a version/date
  • Need to verify whether this makes sense to include in pilot - is it easier to do it this way than not?

Usable keyword search across and within parts

Focus:

• Global search is available from every page
• In search results, there's an option to search for your keyword in other tools with a wider scope of information (such as beta eCFR and Medicaid.gov)
• There's a way to filter search results by part, no matter how you started the search
• You can search within current part
• Literal keywords in search results are highlighted
• Search is able to search for simple synonyms for your keyword (such as the full version of an abbreviation) and plurals, drawing from an existing source of data
• There's a way to search within a specific version (the content on a specific effective date), no matter how you started the search
• Display search results as a hierarchy according to part and section number

Not in pilot:

• Search is able to search for fuzzy synonyms for your keyword (such as multiple alternate phrases), drawing from an existing source of data [thesaurus]
• Search results display hand-written additional material (such as "related searches"), in addition to keyword results [thesaurus]
• Search box has type-ahead search suggestions, drawing from an existing source of data [thesaurus]
• Search results display semi-automated additional material (such as "related searches") from a different source, in addition to keyword results
• When you click a search result, your search term remains highlighted on the content page
• When you're in search, there's a "Back to Regulation Text" button that tracks where they were coming from
• If search tracks where you come from, the search results page includes the context AND the left sidebar is collapsed by default

Usable navigation of past reg versions and comparisons between versions (timeline / history)

Focus:

• Ability to view a past version of a regulation
• Ability to compare a reg part from one past date to another (including comparing to the present version)
• For any past or current version you're looking at, you can access a link to the Final Rule (including preamble) for that version in the Federal Register
  • Need to consider how this applies to annual or month-by-month changes (instead of rule-by-rule changes)
• You can see the number of differences counted up for you
• You can go to the next difference
• The left nav table of contents includes indicators for subparts and sections that have changed
• You're able to view a reg part as it was effective on a past date, using the annual editions (the official data from the GPO) plus data from eCFR (monthly)
• We tell the user when there is a future-effective version of the content they are viewing (including a link to see it)

Not in pilot:

• We tell the user when there is a proposed change that affects the content they are viewing (including a link to the NPRM)
• Ability to view proposed versions and compare them within eRegs
• You're able to view a reg part as it was effective on a past date, on a rule-by-rule granular level, using the annual editions plus parsing changes in Federal Register rules

Helpful and accurate cross-reference links

Focus:

• When reg text says a reference to a piece of reg that eRegs contains, it links you to it within eRegs (part, section number, and paragraph or subparagraph, like (a)(1)) - not considering ranges
• When reg text says a reference to a Federal Register notice, it links you to the Federal Register website
• When reg text says a reference to a piece of reg that eRegs does not contain, it links you to that piece of reg in eCFR (just part and section number)
• There is a way to author arbitrary cross-reference data: a specific phrase in the reg content always matches to a specific link (for example, Part B of title XI of the Act, section 1104 of the Affordable Care Act, Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT)
  • Need to learn more from usability testing, but likely important

Not in pilot:

• TBD about pop-up boxes, tooltips, etc, based on outcome of usability testing
• Additional types of cross-references TBD depending on the outcome of content testing - not sure yet how important certain things are
• When reg text says a reference to a range of reg that eRegs contains, it links you to it within eRegs; on the target page, it appropriately displays the contents somehow (highlights the range)

Helpful site homepage

Focus:

• The homepage has customizable content areas
• The homepage displays a list of parts that are within eRegs
• The homepage displays an automated list of recent changes (recent rules) affecting the in-scope parts
  • Maybe also proposed rules?

Not in pilot:

• The homepage provides a plain language description for each part

Out of pilot scope

Sharing

• There's a way to copy the text of a piece of reg with one click. When you paste that text from eRegs to Outlook desktop email on Windows, it looks reasonable (to the degree we're able to control this).
• There's a way to copy a link to a range of paragraphs
• When people share a link to eRegs on a tool like Slack, there's a meaningful snippet of content
• When you're looking at a piece of reg content, you see labels telling you the citation style info for what you're looking at in a way you can copy-and-paste (subpart, part, section)

Easy-to-use authoring for all custom content

• Including custom content on reg part homepages

Definitions

• Each part can have a set of definitions data (terms that should be defined and the paragraphs they should link to)
• There is a way to author the definitions data (to select the terms that should be defined and the paragraphs they should link to)
• A definition inline links to its source location in the reg content (a specific paragraph from the definitions list within the reg)
• A definition inline presents a preview of its text

Thesaurus

• We display a list of the custom content we use to power our thesaurus in search (groups of terms + regs they are associated with), as a reference and to support oversight

Teaching people to use regs

• There is unobtrusive inline/embedded content throughout eRegs that provides tips to help new reg readers learn how to use regs, such as explaining NPRMs, Reserved, etc
• We offer recorded video demos of how to do various tasks with eRegs

Authenticated personal experience

• Add annotations to pieces of reg text
• Label pieces of reg text with personal keywords and view by label
• Tracked history and bookmarked regs are persistent, not dependent on local storage