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Denice Ross Lightning
This document provides five tips for creating an app that can be trusted by the local community from Katrina's perspective. The tips are to have a well-defined question based on user needs, make sure the data can answer the question, include clear metadata, fix errors that matter locally, and optimize usability through field testing. Following these tips can help create a credible app that makes recovery smoother for New Orleans residents.
Denice Ross Lightning
- 1. An app wecan trustFive tips from KatrinaPresented by: Denice W. RossGreater New Orleans Community Data Center
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- 7. Smiley N. Pool,Dallas Morning NewsAlex Brandon, Times PicayuneAlex Brandon, Times PicayuneIrwin Thompson, Times Picayune
- 10. Tip #1:Have awell-defined question based on the real needs of your audience.
- 11. “How many peopleare back, and where are they living?”
- 12. Alternative sources ofpopulation dataPublic school enrollmentSurveysUtility accountsPostal dataDrivers LicensesTraffic VolumeVoter RegistrationVehicle Registration
- 13. Alternative sources ofpopulation dataPublic school enrollmentSurveysUtility accountsPostal dataDrivers LicensesTraffic VolumeVoter RegistrationVehicle Registration
- 14. Tip #2:Make surethe data set you choose can actually answer your question.
- 17. Tip #3:Put metadatain plain sight and in plain English.
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- 19. Simple description ofwhat the data set represents
- 20. “Learn more” forlaypeople
- 21. Technical documentation forexperts
- 22. Tip #4:Fix, orexplain, errors that matter to locals.(fixing is better)
- 24. Tip #5:Optimize usabilitythrough field-testing.
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- 27. 800 x 600Screen Resolution <5% web site visitors60% of neighborhood leaders
- 28. Credible App=Happy usersand a smoother recovery for New Orleans
- 34. “…population is shiftingacross neighborhoods even as new households are moving into the city, indicating the need to monitor new vacancies and develop policies to address potential new blight”
- 35. Local credibility ishard to gain… and easy to lose.
Editor's Notes
- #4 4.5 years ago, a large hurricane named Katrina headed our way.
- #8 But then we learned the federal levee system had failed, and 80% of our city was underwater.
- #16 Postal data makes sense. Mailman McCann walks his route in the Lower Ninth, talks to folks, and knows right away if someone has moved back.He recordsthe addresses that are picking up the mail and addresses that are vacant. Then he puts these changes into the official “edit book” and they go into a central database.
- #24 As we kicked the tires on this data set, we noticed more than 700 addresses were geocoding to blocks in theneutral ground blocks, like on St. Charles Avenue where the street car runs. There aren’t any houses there. We know that the problem stems from inaccuracies in the geocoding database, but our lay audience doesn’t care about geocoding databases and seeing houses on the street car tracks makes our whole data set lose credibility, and it distracts our users from the tasks they are trying to accomplish with the app.So we fixed ‘em.
- #28 One surprising finding was that although less than 5% of all visitors to our web site had low-res displays, 60% of the neighborhood leaders we tested the site with had displays of 800x600 resolution, rendering our app this big.
- #29 Seven quick case studies.
- #30 Spring break volunteers in Holy Cross worked on gutting houses rather than collecting basic data through door to door surveying, because that data is now updated quarterly in this app.
- #31 Friends of Palmer Park uses the data in grant proposals to demonstrate that the area around the park is well-repopulated.
- #32 In this contentious land-use issue, advocates for homeowners and the hospital developers used this app to understand how many people are living in the proposed footprint of a new hospital.
- #33 This app makes it easy for media to report on New Orleans recovery, which keeps us in the national consciousness.
- #34 This app makes it easy for media to report on New Orleans recovery, which keeps us in the national consciousness.
- #35 And we also use the app as a policy tool.