Skip to main content
SoftsasiAI for Engineers
Sign in

§ masterplan.md

Public Policy Explainer

An editorial site that breaks complex government policies into simple cards, timelines and impact calculators.

All ideas
Editorial

01

App overview and objectives

A site that explains public policy in plain language: what a law says, who it affects, what changes, and how it compares to alternatives — with sources for every claim. Neutrality is the product.

02

The problem worth solving

Citizens read either the raw legal text, which is impenetrable, or partisan summaries, which are unreliable. A sourced, side-by-side explainer fills the gap that most democracies leave open.

03

Target audience

  • Primary — Engaged citizens, students and journalists trying to understand a specific policy.
  • Secondary — Civil-society organisations that need shareable, credible summaries.

04

Roles and permissions

  • Visitor — read-only public pages, can sign up.
  • Member — owns their own records, cannot see other users' data.

05

Core features

  • Policy pages with a one-paragraph summary, key changes and effective dates
  • Who-is-affected panel by group (students, small business, tenants)
  • Side-by-side comparison of two policies or of before/after
  • Every claim linked to a primary source with the quoted passage
  • Glossary with inline term definitions on hover
  • Newsletter digest when tracked policies change status

Deliberately later

  • Regional variations
  • Impact calculators
  • Multi-language versions

06

Technical stack

Static-rendered content from a structured CMS, with a public revision history.

Why: Credibility depends on transparency: version-controlled content with visible diffs is worth more than any interactive feature.

Alternatives: A wiki (fast community contribution, harder quality control) or a database-driven app (flexible, more surface for error).

07

Conceptual data model

Policy — title, jurisdiction, status, dates, summary, full text link

Change — policy, description, affected groups, effective date

Source — policy, citation, url, quoted passage

Term — word, plain definition, related policies

Revision — entity, editor, timestamp, diff

08

Integrations

  • Email digest
  • Search
  • Official gazette or parliament data feeds where available

09

UI design principles

  • Reading experience first: 65-75 character measure, strong serif headings, real typographic hierarchy.
  • Images are captioned and credited; pull-quotes break long passages.
  • Navigation stays out of the way while reading and reappears on scroll-up.

10

Security considerations

  • Editorial accounts with two-factor authentication; anonymous editing is not allowed.
  • Public, immutable revision log so manipulation is detectable.
  • Corrections policy published and linked from every page.

11

Development phases

Phase 1 — Prove the core

  • — Policy pages with a one-paragraph summary, key changes and effective dates
  • — Who-is-affected panel by group (students, small business, tenants)
  • — Side-by-side comparison of two policies or of before/after
  • — Static content and design system in place
  • — Basic analytics

Phase 2 — Make it real

  • — Every claim linked to a primary source with the quoted passage
  • — Glossary with inline term definitions on hover
  • — Newsletter digest when tracked policies change status
  • — Accounts, sign-in and password reset
  • — Empty, loading and error states everywhere

Phase 3 — Polish and launch

  • — Performance, accessibility and SEO pass
  • — Legal pages, contact route and 404 handling
  • — Wire up: Email digest
  • — Wire up: Search

Phase 4 — Grow

  • — Regional variations
  • — Impact calculators
  • — Multi-language versions

12

Challenges and solutions

Risk — Accusations of bias

Solution — Structural neutrality: quote primary sources, present strongest arguments from each side, publish the editorial method.

Risk — Policies change faster than content

Solution — Status badges with a last-verified date; stale pages are labelled, not hidden.

Risk — Plain language loses nuance

Solution — Layered writing — summary, detail, then the exact legal text.

13

Future expansion

  • Legislator voting records
  • Public consultation deadlines
  • Local council coverage

14

Page list (13 pages)

  1. 01 PUBLIC Policies — Browse and search all tracked policies.
  2. 02 PUBLIC Compare — Side-by-side analysis.
  3. 03 PUBLIC Impact — Who is affected and how.
  4. 04 PUBLIC Glossary — Plain-language definitions.
  5. 05 PUBLIC Newsletter — Subscribe to change alerts.
  6. 06 AUTH Sign up — Create an account with email or a social provider.
  7. 07 AUTH Log in — Return to the account, with error and lockout states.
  8. 08 AUTH Reset password — Request a reset link and set a new password.
  9. 09 APP (signed in) Account settings — Profile, email, password, language and delete account.
  10. 10 PUBLIC Contact — Contact form plus real address, phone and email.
  11. 11 LEGAL & SYSTEM Privacy policy — What data is collected, why, and how to remove it.
  12. 12 LEGAL & SYSTEM Terms of service — Rules of use, liability and account termination.
  13. 13 LEGAL & SYSTEM 404 not found — Friendly dead end with search and links back.

15

Page map

PUBLIC         AUTH               APP (signed in)      LEGAL & SYSTEM
─────────────  ─────────────────  ───────────────────  ───────────────────
├─ Policies    ├─ Sign up         └─ Account settings  ├─ Privacy policy
├─ Compare     ├─ Log in                               ├─ Terms of service
├─ Impact      └─ Reset password                       └─ 404 not found
├─ Glossary
├─ Newsletter
└─ Contact

key flows:
  Policies ──▶ Compare
  Policies ──▶ Impact
  Impact ──▶ Glossary
  Policies ──▶ Newsletter