Thanks for the link @Dan-ODS. We may take advantage of profiles as a solution here, but I don’t think this is a duplicate issue.
@bloom I should clarify that when I received feedback about the truck, it wasn’t in relation to HSDS actually, that was just the jumping off point for my line of thinking. Forgive me if I’ve mischaracterized the spec. I depend on HSDS and think it’s an amazing specification.
I think the issue in both #1 and #2 is that there’s a user need to see what contact information is the first contact information that they should use (presumably to access a service; I also assume the answer may vary for other use cases).
Yes that’s right, and also you’ve hit a couple points that we may as well dig into here as well.
- Sometimes it’s not as simple as defining a single “main” number, for example. There may be two or more numbers that a user can attempt in order, to access a service.
- Something that Connect 211’s basic ranking doesn’t adequately define is what the intended use for numbers is. Users looking for help may only be interested in an ordered list of numbers that are specially for intake.
HSDS tells me whether it’s a voice or fax number, but it doesn’t tell me whether it’s primarily for intake, information, verification, or other purposes.
What are some of those other purposes that phone numbers and other contact info are used for? How do we prioritize, not just the order of phone numbers, but also whether a user should call a phone number or fill out an intake form first?