[Story] View a list of the most relevant filing resources

[natalia-fitzgerald]

Epic

Epic issue includes overview, complete list of user stories, technical and content requirements, user testing task ideation, and current design mock-ups.

• [Epic] Getting started shared landing page (unauthenticated)  #7

User story

• As a filer, I want a list of the most relevant filing resources, so that I can prepare for the filing season.

Acceptance criteria

• Given a user reaches the small business lending database page, when they scroll to the resources for filers section, then they see a list of links to the most relevant filing resources that provide a clear idea of the destination page and are easy to skim.

Story refinement

• Prepared
• In progress
• Completed

Technical tasks

Once story refinement is complete and the story has been brought into the current sprint, team members should create task issues and add links to those tasks.

UX

• Mock up created here --- ([Story] View a list of the most relevant filing resources #262 (comment))

Front end

• No frontend tasks since this is in Wagtail

Back end

• N/A

Data

• N/A

[dan-padgett]

Since a filer could get to the archive from the current filing instructions guide, what's the use case for linking directly to the archive?

[natalia-fitzgerald]

@dan-padgett

Since a filer could get to the archive from the current filing instructions guide, what's the use case for linking directly to the archive?

You can't get to the archive from the link that is currently included on the page. The link on the page takes you directly to the Filing instructions guide for data collected in 2025: https://www.consumerfinance.gov/data-research/small-business-lending/filing-instructions-guide/2025-guide/

If the URL instead took a user to one page up from there you would get the link to the latest version and the archive on the same page: https://www.consumerfinance.gov/data-research/small-business-lending/filing-instructions-guide/ If we were to send users to that top level page I would think we would want to make the Filing instructions guide for data collected in 2025 a lot more prominent.

Here's an easy one that could reduce the weight of that section:
Is there a compelling reason we need to link here: https://www.consumerfinance.gov/data-research/small-business-lending/small-business-lending-data-updates/?

I think that from a broader perspective we should start thinking about what the purpose of this section is. I would argue that this section should include the most important resources for filers. Can we define those?

In the meantime, perhaps we can move forward with some of the text updates I suggested to make the links more concise?

[dan-padgett]

You can't get to the archive from the link that is currently included on the page.

You can, it's just not obvious with the breadcrumb language. Clicking the last link in the breadcrumb (in the red box in the screenshot) takes you to the archive page.

But that again just brings up the question of why someone would be looking for the archive. I'm not necessarily advocating for removing the link to the archive, but it seems like a good candidate.

[natalia-fitzgerald]

@dan-padgett
In terms of the use case, accessing the archive is the primary use case or even the secondary use case. So I would think that removing the link from the database page would be ok.

In terms of the links to the filing instructions guide the priority for a user would be:

• View filing instructions guide for data collected in 2025
  • This is the current filing instructions guide and so directly linking here makes sense
  • But, if we determine that there is any need to link to previous versions or archive I would ask the question should we just link to the filing instructions guide parent page to begin with and make that current filing instructions guide link much more prominent on the parent page
• View previous versions of the filing instructions guide
  • These could be the basis for resubmitting data from a previous filing period)
• Linking here does also get the user to the archive because these live on the same page
• View archived filing instructions guides
  • These are for reference only and don't apply to data eligible for resubmission

This is the language on the page that is linked to from the breadcrumb: https://www.consumerfinance.gov/data-research/small-business-lending/filing-instructions-guide

View previous versions
Previous versions of the guide no longer apply to data being collected, but may still be the basis for resubmitting data from a previous filing period. When previous versions are available, they will be linked here.

View archived versions
Archived versions of the guide no longer apply to any data that is eligible for resubmission, and are provided for reference only.

I don't think that depending on a breadcrumb that doesn't even give a user any glimpse into what they will find on a page (current version, previous versions, archived versions) is a real path for a user. If we see this path as important we have to present it more proactively. So either we send them to this parent to begin with, which does have drawbacks in that it makes the primary path less direct. Or we rethink the link on the database page to better reflect why we're sending them there (is it for previous versions that are still relevant for resubmission?).

[natalia-fitzgerald]

@angelcardoz
While we figure out we continue to talk through what links should be included in this section would you be open to an initial adjustment of the link text to make it more plain language and helpful to a user:

Before:

After:

I can add this to the draft that's set to release next week if it looks good to you. Then we can handle the other questions separately (for a later release).

[dan-padgett]

I like the "After" version @natalia-fitzgerald and have one suggestion: change "Archive of filing instructions guides" to "Filing instructions guides archive" for better readability.

[natalia-fitzgerald]

Moving this from the main post on this issue to here (to keep the user story format for the first post):

Current links

Resources for filers

• Latest filing instructions guide (for data collected in 2025)
• Archive of filing instructions guides
• Updates to data related pages and tools
• Data spec for data collected in 2025 (CSV)
• Data validation spec information for data collected in 2025 (CSV)

Suggested updates

If we decide that all of these links are the ones we wish to include on this page, I have some suggestions on how we can make the link text more concise and consistent with the locations where the user will find themselves if they decide to follow them.

Resources for filers

• Filing instructions guide for data collected in 2025
• Archive of filing instructions guides
• Updates to data related pages and tools
  • I do not think that the average user will need a direct link to this page but we can discuss.
• Data points for data collected in 2025 (CSV)
  • I changed the name of this one to make it more concise and for consistency with the filing instructions guide language
  • It seems weird to me that this link is getting the external link icon because it is stored within cf.gov...but I'll have to ask around about that
• Validations for data collected in 2025 (CSV)
  • I changed the name of this one to make it more concise and for consistency with the filing instructions guide language
  • It seems weird to me that this link is getting the external link icon because it is stored within cf.gov...but I'll have to ask around about that