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This is a prototype vision of how a future government service could work. It's not a real service yet, but we're exploring what it could look like. Your feedback will help shape the real service.

Step 3: Use Interactive Filters - QuickSight Dashboard Walkthrough

Apply Service Area and Region filters to explore multi-dimensional analysis

Walkthrough progress

Step 3 of 4 • 3 minutes

Step 3 3 minutes

Use Interactive Filters

Experience the power of self-service analytics by filtering data by Service Area and Region.

Find your QuickSight access URL in CloudFormation Outputs
The dashboard loads with council service performance data

Expected outcome

  • You apply the Service Area filter and see all widgets update instantly
  • You filter by Region to compare geographic performance
  • You understand how filters work together
  • You can reset filters to see all data again

Opening the Controls panel

At the top of the dashboard, locate the Controls panel. If it's collapsed, click on it to expand:

  1. Click the Controls bar at the top of the dashboard
  2. You'll see two dropdown filters:
    • Service Area - currently showing "All"
    • Region - currently showing "All"

Filtering by Service Area

Let's filter to see just one service area:

  1. Click the Service Area dropdown (currently set to "All")
  2. You'll see a list of 9 service areas with checkboxes:
    • Benefits
    • Council Tax
    • Customer Services
    • Environmental Health
    • Highways
    • Housing
    • Parking
    • Planning Applications
    • Waste Collection
  3. Click "Select all" to uncheck all options
  4. Select only "Housing"
  5. Click outside the dropdown or press Escape to close it
  6. Watch all widgets update instantly to show only Housing data

The wow moment: Real-time filtering

When you selected Housing, QuickSight instantly filtered the data:

  • Total Cases: Changed from 267,334 → 29,760 (Housing only)
  • Bar charts: Now show only Housing as a single bar
  • Table: Now shows Housing broken down by 8 regions

Technical detail: SPICE (Super-fast, Parallel, In-memory Calculation Engine) stores data in compressed columnar format. The filter was applied and all visuals updated in milliseconds - faster than refreshing an Excel spreadsheet.

Understanding Housing performance by region

With Housing selected, look at the Service Performance Breakdown table:

Housing performance by region
Region Cases Resolved Satisfaction
West Midlands 4,253 3,583 4.15
North East 4,244 3,665 4.22
London 3,798 3,222 4.38 (highest)
North West 3,601 3,150 3.88 (lowest)

Insight: Housing satisfaction varies significantly by region. London (4.38) has the highest satisfaction while North West (3.88) has the lowest. This 0.5 point difference is significant - it could indicate different service delivery approaches, resource allocation, or housing stock conditions.

Resetting filters

To see all data again:

  1. Click the Reset button in the top-left corner (circular arrow icon)
  2. All filters return to "All" and dashboard shows full dataset (267,334 cases)

Filtering by Region

Now try filtering by geographic region:

  1. Click the Region dropdown
  2. You'll see 8 regions:
    • East Midlands
    • London
    • North East
    • North West
    • South East
    • South West
    • West Midlands
    • Yorkshire
  3. Select only "London"
  4. Dashboard now shows all 9 service areas, but only for London region

Use case: Regional managers can view their region's performance across all services. London Housing Manager sees London data. Yorkshire Highways Manager sees Yorkshire highways data. Same dashboard, personalized view.

Combining filters

You can apply both filters together:

  1. Set Service Area to "Housing"
  2. Set Region to "London"
  3. Dashboard now shows only Housing cases in London (3,798 cases, 4.38 satisfaction)

Before/After comparison: Service analysis

Before QuickSight (Manual Excel)
  1. Manager emails analyst: "How is Housing performing in London?"
  2. Analyst opens Excel, applies filters to raw data (10 min)
  3. Analyst creates pivot table and charts (20 min)
  4. Analyst formats and emails back (10 min)
  5. Manager asks follow-up: "Compare to North West?" (repeat process)

Total time: 40+ minutes per question

After QuickSight (Self-Service)
  1. Manager opens QuickSight dashboard (5 seconds)
  2. Selects "Housing" from Service Area dropdown (2 seconds)
  3. Selects "London" from Region dropdown (2 seconds)
  4. Sees answer instantly - 3,798 cases, 4.38 satisfaction
  5. Changes Region to "North West" for comparison (2 seconds)

Total time: 15 seconds per question

Reflection: Questions you answered

In this 3-minute step, you answered these questions through interactive exploration:

  • "How many Housing cases are we handling?" → 29,760 (filtered from 267K total)
  • "Which region has highest Housing satisfaction?" → London (4.38)
  • "Which region has lowest Housing satisfaction?" → North West (3.88)
  • "How many Housing cases in London specifically?" → 3,798
  • "How does London Housing compare to North West Housing?" → 0.5 point satisfaction difference

Without QuickSight: Each question = separate analyst request, multi-day turnaround.
With QuickSight: All 5 questions answered in under 2 minutes through self-service filtering.

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