Building America’s Economy

1. Building America’s Economy The U.S. Census Bureau’s First Mobile App

2. “Government agencies must enable the public, entrepreneurs and our own government programs to better leverage the rich wealth of federal data (and help) serve to unlock the power of government data, spur innovation, and thereby improve the quality of services for the American people.”

3. New Digital Strategy Building a 21st Century Platform to better serve the American People Information-Centric Making Open Data, Content, and Web API’s the New Default. Facilitating content through Open APIs making data assets freely available for use within and between agencies, private section, and citizens. Customer-Centric Using Modern tools, and technologies, to understand customer satisfaction and needs. Improving priority customer-facing services for mobile use Measuring performance and customer satisfaction to improve services delivery Shared Platform Identifying Content Management System solutions and supporting implementation through training and best practices. Enabling code sharing and modular development Security and Privacy Adopting of new technology that will enable safety and security of our data Building for the future requires us to think beyond programmatic lines. To keep up with the pace of change in technology and produce better content and data

4. Mobile App Concept Development Recap Stakeholder Interviews Mobile Landscape Validate Census Objectives Refine Target Audience Groups Identify Concepts Prioritize Application Concepts

5. We Looked at How People Use Apps The share of adult cell phone owners who have downloaded an app to their phone nearly doubled in recent years – rising from 22% in September 2009 to 38% in August 2011. Source: Pew Research, 2011

6. We Looked at Mobile Device Features • Great for consuming data, not as good for data entry. • “On the go” usage • Utilize unique phone capabilities • Location based information • Camera utilization • Great for social capabilities • Second screen utilization - Watching television, movies • Data visualization – larger screen experience

7. We Defined Our Objectives and Users • For initial consumer facing apps, our objectives were to: • Increase public awareness and understanding of Census Bureau Statistics, especially among non-expert users • Increase usage of Census Bureau Statistics • Engage our audiences in new ways through relevant experiences • Build relationships and advocates with and among users • What apps are out there already? • What user groups do your goals support? • - Expert, professional, casual and education users

8. Our Development Process Interviews & Research • Understand vision for project, technical considerations, broaden understanding of available data • Conduct user research Workshop • Understand mobile and user considerations • Define project objectives • Identify candidate concepts to further explore Concept Exploration & Selection • Expanding the concepts to answer the who/what/when/why/how Concept Visualization • Define flow, ensuring consistent user experience resulting in wireframes and design comps Technical Architecture Definition • Create high-level technical design to support the application Final Creative Design • Detailed specs for each element of the application Development & Testing • Implement the application • Develop test scripts and test User Acceptance Testing • Submit applications to appropriate stores for launch • Conducted three rounds of UAT Submittal & Launch • Submit applications to appropriate stores for launch

9. Concept Visualization • Ensuring consistent user experience resulting in wireframes and design comps

10. ConsistentBrand America’s Economy Logo Options Census Bureau Brand Attributes

11. Technical Architecture Create high-level technical design to support the application

12. Testing Approach • System Testing: System testing is performed on the entire system in the context of a functional requirement. System testing tests not only the design, but also the behavior (functionality) and implied expectations of the client. • UAT testing: User Acceptance Test (UAT), is the process to obtain confirmation that a system meets mutually agreed-upon requirements. UAT acts as a final verification of the proper functioning of the system.

13. UAT: Test Cycle Each test cycle includes following high level steps: • Test using predefined test scripts • Capture TARs • Prioritize TARs • Fix TARs • Report status and Plan next steps • Detailed agenda will be defined prior to the start of UAT • TARs = Technical assistance request – All the defects found in the testing process are logged in the TARs tracker

14. The Results America’s Economy provides the latest data for the principal federal economic indicators, including BEA and BLS, which allows businesses to have this information at their finger tips when making important decisions everyday. • Available in both Android and Apple stores on smartphones and tablets. • Featured in New and Noteworthy Section of iTunes. • About 60,000 downloads in first month.

15. User Feedback Via App and Stores “Excellent. I work in market research / statistics, so see a great deal of numbers, charts, etc. Well done.” “…to bring products from these three very important govt. agencies together in one place for the public is transparent public education at its finest.” “As a high school economics and US history teacher, this app is fabulous.  Thank you.” “This app is wonderful! My only complaint: it should include the consumers price index (CPI) and the manufacturers price index. No quantitative description of the economy is complete without these data.” “Another app I'd love is for detailed, sortable population data to compare various cities and areas around the country.”

16. Questions?