Our plans to maintain this component

[calvin-lau-sig7]

Later in 2022, we’ll carry out research to understand how we can support services that use this component.

We’ll work with other teams in GDS to find the best way to keep the component up-to-date with the latest technologies and for accessibility.

We hope to find out more about:

• services that use the current autocomplete
• their different use cases
• customisations or ‘hacks’ that teams have made
• datasets in use
• accessibility work service teams have done, and what needs they’ve discovered

If you’d like to help or share your experiences, leave a comment in this issue.

[edwardhorsford]

DfE has used the autocomplete extensively and would be happy to chat.

In particular we've done work to add our own much improved suggestion engine to greatly improve the quality of results. This was made so that it could be a drop in replacement for the existing one.

[adamliptrot-oc]

There are a good number of teams at HMRC using the accessible autocomplete and country/territory autocomplete.
We've also added some improvements to make it work a little better.

[terrysimpson99]

This appears to be the single source of truth for HMG country names: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/geographical-names-and-information

Comments?

[freyjadomville]

At Historic England, who sit under DCMS, we're using this component in the upcoming redesign of the Listing and Designations Form to enhance a select field for Counties and Unitary Authorities with autocomplete, specifically for the accessibility features it provides when enhancing a select. If you need to please feel free to get in touch with us to discuss support we might need with releasing a new version, or testing a beta of the new autocompletion engine - I'd be happy to have a back and forth with you on this.

[paulrobertlloyd]

We’re using this component at DLUHC. On the service I’m currently working on (Submit social housing lettings and sales data (CORE)), we’re using it to help users find and select a local authority, with other uses cases where a user needs to find a select from a large dataset in the works. I also worked on teams at DfE where this component was used extensively, and it was complimented by the team at DAC when they audited our service.

We’ve been referring to this as an officially-unofficial component – it’s inclusion in the design system proper would be greatly welcomed. There are a lot of fiddly aspects to this that can crop up, and I’m not sure if it can ever be perfect, but it often provides a solution that is so much better than any of the alternatives.

[paulmsmith]

I have used this component in the past. @paulrobertlloyd's description 'offically-unofficial' is good a reflection of how most teams I've used it with have viewed it.

I'd wager that this is enough of a common problem to warrant being included in the design system and would very much welcome an updated version with community improvements. I recognise that this would not be a small piece of work to build (and support) though.

[terrysimpson99]

@calvin-lau-sig7 or anyone: I looked but failed to find the source of countries.

Is it the Geographical names index (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/geographical-names-and-information) managed by the Foreign Office?

There are also ongoing discussions about an approved set of Welsh names across government. Would you be able to support that?

[paulwaitehomeoffice]

We're using the accessible autocomplete on https://www.electronic-visa-waiver.service.gov.uk and https://www.faster-uk-entry.service.gov.uk — it's been incredibly useful to have a re-usable components that seems to meet WCAG 2.1 and work well with assistive technologies.

[Tosin-Balogun]

Thanks for creating this pool @calvin-lau-sig7

We have a number of teams using or considering autocomplete/autosuggest in their service at the moment within the NHS design estate. It would be great to share some of what we have discovered along with what you are doing.

I'm currently introducing it with a clinical admin system within national screening...

UPDATE - See the implementation and user feedback here nhsuk/nhsuk-service-manual-community-backlog#111 (comment)

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NHS autocomplete Github issue

[tvararu]

Really exciting!

Please reach out to me as well if you need any help unpicking some of the code. :)