UXDI Case Study: Trying to make Sense of the Census

How data visualization could bring increased knowledge and appreciation for the Census.

OVERVIEW

The 2020 Census has officially kicked off. Every 10 years, the US government goes through the massive undertaking of counting each every person living in the US at a given moment.

The results dictate the funding decisions for states and local communities, support for programs, and so much more. It is incredibly important that every person is accounted for because of the positive impact it has on a community down the road.

OBJECTIVE

Find a way to increase knowledge and participation in the Census.

My role: Conducting user interviews, Research synthesis, conducting an online survey, user flows, Sketching, Wireframing, Prototyping

Client: Census Bureau

Timeline: 2 weeks

PROBLEM STATEMENT

People are unaware of how much public good comes from filling out the Census which may also contribute to a lack of participation about the Census.

Initial Ideation Sketches

Initial idea for a “Decades in Review” feature to show users how their community benefits from Census data.

Inspiration?

I love Spotify’s “Year in Review” and envisioned a similar feature that would give Census takers a fun, informative overview of their local communities and generate buzz with its sharing capabilities.

I saw an opportunity to give positive reinforcement and validation to users who participated.

MY RESEARCH PROCESS

User Interviews

I conducted 10 interviews (ages 26–69. 6 men, 4 women) as the first step in the research process. I wanted to learn more about three broad topics:

1. How users learned about current events.

2. User’s familiarity with the Census.

3. What users wanted to know about the Census.

After speaking with my interviewees, I discovered some problems

• Only 2/10 participants had filled out the Census
• Misinformation and controversy over Citizenship question
• Confusion over what the Census did
• Inability to interpret the data in a quick, consumable way.

“I”d like to know how to get ahold of that data.”

The main theme I saw across my users was a general lack of knowledge about how to access, interpret, or find data about the Census.

Online Survey

To figure out which datasets would interest people the most, I conducted an online survey made through Google Forms. I got a total of 22 participants, mostly from a community page on Facebook.

People were most interested in County data and the most popular datasets were the following:

1. Population and socio economic status of residents (19 votes)
2. Breakdown of funding (18 votes)
3. Property values of a community (17 votes)

DESIGN PROCESS

Continuing onward since we had deadlines to meet, I sketched out a prototype and conducted some testing with classmates on Zoom. I was still very much attached to my “Decades in Review” concept and this is finally where I let go.

Some key feedback I received:

• The information shown through the app was interesting and meaningful.
• Making the feature available after Census completion was very limiting

Sketches figuring out page layouts for the Censusdata.gov

PROTOTYPE

https://balsamiq.cloud/sdkihzd/pb7carh

Here I will go over some research-backed features I added to my final prototype for Censusdata.gov

Feature 1: Carousel of information about what Censusdata.gov can do for users.

Feature 2: Search by zip code

I chose to have users search for their county with a zip code because it’s the quickest piece of information a user could type in order to pinpoint their location.

Feature 3: Population and income data coming first with sliding menu of categories on top. These were ordered based on the survey results.

LESSONS LEARNED

Kill your darlings

I first heard this phrase in a poetry class and have found it infuriatingly accurate time and time again. The concept is that your first (and sometimes most loved ideas) often don’t make it to the end. Looking back on my process, I’m surprised by how long it took for me to let go of my original feature! In the end, it was totally worth it and helped to create a more functional and long-lasting app.

With research comes clarity

The layered approach I took to my research is something I hope to incorporate with future projects. Having an initial round of interviews and then following up with a survey gave me a lot of clarity and direction for the prototype.

NEXT STEPS

• Do more research into who the target audience would be to create effective personas.
• Build out more of the prototype in Balsamiq and conduct user testing.

Want to learn more?

If you’d like to become an expert in UX Design, Design Thinking, UI Design, or another related design topic, then consider to take an online UX course from the Interaction Design Foundation. For example, Design Thinking, Become a UX Designer from Scratch, Conducting Usability Testing or User Research — Methods and Best Practices. Good luck on your learning journey!