Discoverable databases: Is your site really user-friendly?

“ Discoverable” databases: Is your data site truly user-friendly? or Lessons learned as a new journo-dev Michelle Minkoff, Los Angeles Times, IRE 2010

I’ve been thinking…
Why data apps are essential
Tell thousands or millions of stories where we once told one
Get more of our work out there
Let the user find their story
Design of db pres informs reporting + editing
Then what?

Bookmarkable records
People want to share (make discoveries)
People want to explore deeper
What user knows > what you think they know
How to remember what’s relevant to them
Same problem as bookmarking part of graphic-based interactive

So, how do I make it better?
Geeky side
Record detail pg. via Web framework
Search-friendly (guessable) URLS
Make query string accessible
Query string = where search is stored
Get vs. post
Get – query explicitly defined in URL, > accessible, < secure
Post – query stored “behind the scenes,” < accessible, > secure

Security
Get is better for accessibility
Any errors need to be accounted for in search string
People could type anything up there – what will your site do?

Make navigation simple
Always be able to get back to main page
Remind user what they searched for
Create list of similar records
Direct user to what might be most newsworthy in a general sense
Gives ideas of how they can explore

Give context
Why should I care?
How does this record compare to all of the others?
Incorporate other methods of storytelling besides data
Prepare reporting as if it could be published

Link out in simple dbs
If posting a list online, allow people to go deeper
Link to topic pages
Might be easy to include custom url in search
http://www.latimes.com/search/dispatcher.front?Query=MYSEARCHTERMHERE&target=article&sortby=display_time+descending
Caution: Would need to adjust for not displaying links that don’t exist

Link back (deeply) to source
Attribute sources w/breadcrumbs others can find their way back to
Ex: CA Secretary of State - http://www.sos.ca.gov/
Don’t be a search engine
If you can google it, so can your reader

Encourage comments
Comments get a bad rap
Maybe key is specificity
User knowledge is data point that can expand your database
Miami Herald Mariel database
LA Times “California’s War Dead)

Data tells a story
Give data room to create conversation
What would someone completely concerned with that area want to know?
Sky’s the limit
It’s not a question of what’s possible, but what helps the user most, and what time and resources we have available

Discoverable databases: Is your site really user-friendly?

by Michelle Minkoff on Feb 21, 2011

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