Forum Discussion
Catalog homepage improvements are urgently needed
Hi Microsoft,
Since this page for Purview DGS has opened, I though I'd start a discussion and provide some user feedback on the UX. Let's be honest: it is confusing for end users, and annoying for admins:
- Users navigate to the catalog to find data, but end up on a homepage that tells them how to set up a catalog. Trust me on this: they don't care, and neither do I after having set up the catalog already.
- Users do however see a search bar, which they will use.
- The 'search' bar on the homepage does not search for data assets or data products, but for Microsoft documentation. Users get stuck here, without ever finding data.
- The current set up of the homepage makes it totally feel like some preview/demo environment.
This lint search bar persists throughout the application, leading to more confusion on data product or data assets search (as there are now two search bars), or within the page of a data product itself (where the search bar persists in the lint, but follow-up search actions using this search bar result in nothing helpful).
I'd suggest removing this lint search option entirely, and bringing the 'discovery' search options to the homepage. Bonus points if the homepage becomes customizable (e.g. like a SharePoint page) so we can point our users to company specific documentation to help them get started. I thought this feature was promised in the previous roadmap, but unfortunately it seems to be deleted in the most recent publication.
A better homepage will greatly aid user adoption.
9 Replies
Search is the reason why data catalog / DG tools are popular and help democratize data. Unless the search bar is fixed, adoption is going to be hard in my organization.
NickDoughtyMicrosoft
Thank you for the feedback. We are looking at the customizability of this page for customers to choose more of the content that is displayed here for their own internal trainings and other helpful links. This work will happen as we start to enable more personalization of the Unified Catalog.
The reason the videos/tutorials are offered there today is to help with federation when a central team has to train and enable many other teams to come to and contribute to the catalog. Enabling these teams requires learnings on both how to do data governance and how to use the catalog. Ideally we will enable these tutorials based on the roles and permissions with in the catalog so they are more relevant based on the person in the catalog.
The search bar at the top is something we have heard more frequently as of late and we are working to provide a solution to make the search experience less confusing for the data consumers.
Hi Nick, you have marked your answer as a solution since March. I have not seen a single improvement or update since. What's going on?
Why not move all that information to a 'getting started' tab and let the user land in a search experience?
- NickDoughty
Hi Rik, The updates we have been making have been landing in other parts of the experience today. We are completing our planning for the end of the year which we are looking to be able to include some UX enhancements for the consumers. The plan as of today will be for consumers to land directly in the discovery experience by personalizing for users that are only consumers, this would hide much of the left nav that is not intended for data consumers. I do not have an ETA for this until we have completed the new public roadmap.
Thanks a lot for the reply Nick!
Can you already say something about expected timelines for the realization of such customization features?
While I agree the videos and tutorials are helpful to get started, it doesn't mean they should make up the homepage of the data catalog. A quick win could be to change the homepage to a search experience, while adding an extra tab for learning where the current videos/tutorials can be moved to. After all, the core feature of a catalog is enabling users to find data.
Totally agree. Ideally, customers should be able to create separate customizable landing pages for different personas. For example, a business data consumer wants to be able to quickly find relevant data products and glossary entries, while a data steward wants to see an overview of the status of their assets and their open tasks.
I completely agree. We received similar complaints from our users how confusing it is. Would be great if you can make it customizable indeed.
Great idea - the homepage is ok for when you first use purview but loses relevance after watching the videos. customisability is key!
