The Road Scholar map of collision incidents and school related problems will help to further Make Queens Safer's connection with community by building an engagement model around a tool that will help users locate dangerous intersections in their school environment. The community will now be a part of the data collection and reporting by using the map to chart out routes to school and access information and resources from their precincts (better enforcement) and even the department of transportation, where users will be able to start campaigns based on the knowledge gathered from this map. A user will be able to say definitively that 1,300 kids attend a school where 8 collisions happened in a half mile radius in just one month. As it stands, collision data on the map is for one month.
The testing methods involve getting into the affected communities in a hands on way. I will visit and do presentations: At Community Board meetings At Precinct Council meetings At school Parent Teacher Association meetings This approach will give Make Queens Safer validity and also build up community support and hopefully bring new members and schools into the fold, empowering a bigger group to advocate for more safety measures.
http://makequeenssafer.tumblr.com
As it stands, it is not very user friendly, and the data needs to be adjusted to be more valuable. It should be prettier- so attention to design tools like icons, color, and more friendly language should be incorporated. In a rush, we just used the fields from the original data, but a change would make it more inviting to users. For example, the collision field says, "Contributing factor/vehicle" and I could change it to, "What happened here?"
The map doesn't include private schools The map doesn't include a way to collect total enrollment numbers for a defined neighborhood. (zip code, or community board) Data comes from various sources and will need to be updated annually.
I need to find a way to aggregate collision data for more than just one month, without having the map be too messy. Overall, there needs to be more transparency with where the data came from, so an "About this map" section that clearly links the data source is needed.
This product will launch the first week of September, as school is starting and 400,000 kids in Queens will be travelling to and from school. I will try to get it reported about in community newspapers, so that when the map reaches PTA's and even facebook groups, people will have a prior knowledge of it, and be more willing to use it.
I have an existing database of PTA groups in Queens. I will make phone calls, arrange meetings and contact them in writing to set up meetings about the map. I will need to get on the police and community board calendars to set up a date to do a presentation.
##Elevator pitch to community groups## We are all concerned about our children's safety as they commute to school, and we're all equally aware of the dangerous intersections on their routes...Now we have a map that can show that the problems are not specific to one place, but a danger all over Queens. By using the Road Scholar map as a tool to define safe routes to school and advocate for more safety education, we'll build a safer Queens for all school kids.
Make Queens Safer will manage the map and host it on our webpage, makequeenssafer.org
In our Metrics and Outcomes class, we have created a dashboard to chart the success and failure of our social media. I will create a sheet there to track feedback.
I will also create a survey on the usability of the product.
My scope was:
- [X ] just right
- too large
- too small
I was a manager for my product
- [ X] yes
- no
I would like to manage this product
- by myself mostly
- [ X] with a designer/developer/team
As you developed your product, were there any decisions that led to unexpected outcomes/caused you headache? If so, what changes did you make and how did they affect your product?
I was unaware of the scale of this project, and was completely incompetent to get it done on my own. I stand by the choices I made in the design of the product and can still envision this tool being more user friendly as I learn how to become a better project manager. Though choosing Queens, and it's over 400,000 school kids was massive, that type of scale is needed to prove the point that we need to consider the travels of our school kids when doing enforcement of traffic rules, educating children on safe travels, and uniting communities against traffic violence.
I am very pleased to see the collision data on the same map as school enrollment numbers. That didn't exist before and it eye-opening to my users and fellow advocates, as Jaime Moncayo, my guest at the presentation noted.
What roles have you played in developing your product? And what roles do you think you are capable of in future projects?
I think I was definitely the project manager and had a tiny hand in the design of the page, though we were not able to create what I envisioned in this iteration. I feel that this map is a starting off point and will help future developers and designers create what I envision. Given the tools and lessons that you, Jue provided, I will have more language and knowledge of map making, SQL and data collection to better guide this project to the next level.