Accessibility and Clarity: The Most Neglected Dimensions of Quality?

1. Accessibility and Clarity:The Most NeglectedDimensions of Quality? Steven Vale, UNECE Statistical Division

2. Contents • What is accessibility? • Accessibility and visualization • Improving clarity • Conclusions

3. The importance of accessibility • “The ease and the conditions with which statistical information can be obtained”(Source: Metadata Common Vocabulary) • Not just about making data available on the Internet or in a book • Accessibility is about bringing data to users in an understandable way, opening a dialogue with those users, and ensuring that their information needs are met

4. Accessibility should include • Communicating • Marketing • Interpreting • “Story-telling” • Informing • Educating

5. Current dissemination practices • Web sites of statistical agencies for all 56 UNECE member countries checked in spring 2008. • Data dissemination systems and formats? • Static or active interfaces? • Use of database technology?

6. Results

7. The user perspective • “Tourists” – want basic data and simple interfaces in their own language • “Harvesters” – want data for basic research or economic decisions, with some functionality to select and export • “Miners” – want detailed data for further analysis, will trade ease of use for increased database functionality

8. User loyalty? • Users rarely use just one data source • Different interfaces and data classifications are a major source of irritation • Standardization would improve accessibility for the statistical community as a whole • Harmonization of terminology? Interfaces? • Offer data according to the DISA / SDMX list of subject matter domains?

9. 1Source: UNECE, Database of International Statistical Activities

10. Accessibility and visualization • Good visualizations make data accessible to many more users • Bad visualizations are unhelpful / misleading • “Self-service” visualization needs to be simple, with guidance to help users get meaningful results • “Ready-made” visualizations can be more complex, tailored to specific data sets

11. Accessibility and visualization • Is it more cost-effective to: • develop “ready-made” graphics, or • offer users more “self-service” functionality? • Advanced users have access to their own visualization and analysis tools

12. Improving clarity • Clarity is all about explaining our data • Do current reference metadata help? • Often written by specialists for specialists • Full of jargon • Too long • Too boring! • Simplified, plain-text versions needed • Could international agencies share this work?

13. Layers of Metadata? Summary Metadata for “Tourists” Intermediate Metadata for “Harvesters” Drill down Detailed Metadata for “Miners”

14. Metadata layers in practice • Quality Reports • Summary – “traffic light” indicator • Red – Serious quality issues, read thequality report before using • Orange – Caution, do not use for important decisions without reading the quality report • Green – Good quality • Intermediate – short quality report(1000 words maximum) • Detailed – full quality report

15. Conclusions - Accessibility • Accessibility is not a passive concept • Users are not homogeneous - outputs should not be homogeneous • Highlight key messages for “tourists” • Allow other users to drill-down to detail • Standard data structures and interfaces? • “Ready-made” graphics are more cost-effective than “self-service”

16. Conclusions - Clarity • Current reference metadata are unhelpful for most users • Layers of metadata satisfy different users • Focus on transparency Overall Conclusion • If we are serious about quality we must pay more attention to accessibility and clarity

17. Thank-you for listening! Comments and Questions? steven.vale@unece.org