There’s a myriad of property data out there, from house price information to property title details. Wouldn’t it be useful if all that information was available in one place? That’s why, at Registers of Scotland (RoS) we’re developing ScotLIS. ScotLIS is an innovative, map-based land and information service that will facilitate easy access to a wide range of data relating to land and property in Scotland.
RoS is in the midst of a digital transformation that will ensure we are a modern, digital registration business that can effectively support the conveyancing and property information market in Scotland. A significant benefit of ScotLIS is that it will be a national asset not only for professionals, but also the general public (or ‘citizen’), who for the first time will have access to a map-based property information service underpinned by Registers of Scotland’s data.
Private beta
Working in conjunction with stakeholder groups, including solicitors, mappers, and local councils, RoS has been continuing to develop the service based on user insights. We reached a significant milestone in August when the service entered private beta. For private beta, we’ve invited a number of existing customers to test the service under controlled conditions, meaning we can gain live feedback while still in this development stage.
Private beta will last for about four weeks, and during this time we’ll be gradually adding additional participants to the service; by the end of the process we’ll have over a hundred individual users interacting with ScotLIS. A major benefit of private beta is that our participants will have the opportunity to complete live transactions through ScotLIS, allowing us to better understand customer interactions with the new service at this early stage.
Public beta
After private beta, we’ll soon move into public beta. During public beta, ScotLIS will be open for a much wider professional audience to sign up, with our developers continuing to monitor the service. Public beta will also see a considerable increase in engagement with the ‘citizen’ side of ScotLIS. For RoS, this is another key stage in delivering a strong final product that meets the needs of all our customers.
Private beta isn’t the only way we’re communicating with our customers in the development of ScotLIS. Over the past few months we’ve held a number of user experience events; these are another important tool for ensuring that ScotLIS is designed with our customers in mind.
For instance, in a similar vein to our Alpha Day in June, in August we hosted a two-day event in Aberdeen. It offered numerous stakeholders from across our customer base to get a first look at ScotLIS. We held both one-to-one and group sessions, so we could maximise engagement and collect detailed responses that only a multi-structured event can bring.
‘Encouraged meaningful discussion’
We’ve received consistently positive feedback throughout private beta and our recent events. Customers are enthusiastic about the improvements that ScotLIS offers compared with existing services, and also how it looks likely to deliver savings in both time and effort across their day-to-day activities. The format of our user experience events was also positive; attendees found that the relaxed atmosphere encouraged meaningful discussion, while they also valued the opportunity to see a live demonstration of ScotLIS itself at such an early stage.
The rest of 2017 will be an exciting time for the ScotLIS team, as well as everyone else at RoS. Whether you’re a solicitor trying to find the exact boundaries of a client’s property title, or a family deciding the best place to move, ScotLIS will greatly increase accessibility to a wide range of property information.
We’re excited for the potential that ScotLIS holds alongside the rest of our digital transformation. More information on ScotLIS can be found at www.ros.gov.uk – you can also keep up to date with the latest news by visiting and signing up for alerts from our blog – https://insideros.blog/
Hilary Brownlie is the ScotLIS service designer at Registers of Scotland.
If you’d like to get involved in the next steps of ScotLIS, you can register with our User Experience Panel. Find out more at https://www.ros.gov.uk/contact-us/user-experience-panel-sign-up