Engineering and Product Design
U.S. Census Bureau User Research Fellowship
Gathering feedback from partners in rural areas about their relationships with the Census and its data, and developing a set of prototypes to increase data equity in the Bureau.
How can we better equip organizations to serve their communities through the collection and dissemination of equitable data?
The Team
​
This project was part of the Civic Digital Fellowship, which is a summer-long opportunity for early-career technologists to work within a federal government agency. I was placed in the U.S. Census Bureau's Office of Strategic Alliances, and worked remotely through the summer with another undergrad to define the scope and goals of the project, connect with and conduct 20 remote interviews, and propose three potential interventions for the Census to improve data accessibility and equity.
Our Methods​
​
We conducted two rounds of qualitative interviews with organizations representing rural communities during this 10-week fellowship. We focused the first round of interviews on listening to and learning what challenges these organizations face when trying to use data, and why they need this data. We returned to these same partners for a second round of interviews after ideating a set of interventions to address the challenges we heard in the first round of conversations, and used feedback from these interviews to polish and document our final proposals for the Census Bureau.
We found three major pain points for our partners:
Data Access, Data Visualization, and Data Collection
Data Access
​
The problem: Organizations don’t have the time or resources to sift through all the data that the Census offers.
​
Our proposed solution: A chat feature to receive help when you’re navigating the Census database.
Data Visualization
​
The problem: Organizations need a way to better understand their communities and measure their own impact.
​
Our proposed solution: Additional database tools to improve the way organizations interact with and analyze Census data.
Data Collection
​
The problem: Organizations need granular, equitably-collected data.
​
Our proposed solution: A data collection system that reaches underrepresented communities by meeting people where they’re at.
