DESIGNING A PUBLIC FACING INTERFACE FOR ENVIRONMENTAL, DEMOGRAPHIC, AND SOCIOECONOMIC DATA

Abstract

One of the goals of the University of Arizona Superfund Research Program (UA SRP) is to promote the awareness and understanding of environmental and public health data within Arizona. To assist in achieving this goal, I developed a web-based visualization to allow community members and key stakeholders to engage with the data that the group has gathered. As I conducted this project before the team could gather user survey data to understand key features, I prioritized feature development based on previous web interfaces from the UA SRP team as well as web interfaces from other organizations. As I implemented the visualization, I evaluated the feasibility of each feature and took note of issues that arose regarding the data and database schema. I also ensured that I utilized libraries and design patterns that future developers on this project could easily build upon. I found that the early stages of the design process are useful for investigating and implementing high priority features. Additionally, having a portion of the design process occur before the user survey allowed for the team to preemptively produce insights with regards to the structure and contents of the database.