United Nations Economic Commission for Europe Statistical Division Accessibility and Clarity: The Most Neglected Dimensions of Quality? Steven Vale, UNECE Statistical Division

Steven Vale - UNECE Statistical Division Slide 203 December 2015 Contents  What is accessibility?  Accessibility and visualization  Improving clarity  Conclusions

Steven Vale - UNECE Statistical Division Slide 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

Steven Vale - UNECE Statistical Division Slide 4 Accessibility should include  Communicating  Marketing  Interpreting  “Story-telling”  Informing  Educating

Steven Vale - UNECE Statistical Division Slide 5 Current dissemination practices  Web sites of statistical agencies for all 56 UNECE member countries checked in spring  Data dissemination systems and formats?  Static or active interfaces?  Use of database technology?

Steven Vale - UNECE Statistical Division Slide 6 Results Internet Dissemination Tools Number of Countries % Static html / pdf / word pages2951.8% Excel spreadsheets1221.4% National database software1730.4% PC-Axis1221.4% Statbank / PC-Axis35.4% SuperWEB23.6%

Steven Vale - UNECE Statistical Division Slide 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

Steven Vale - UNECE Statistical Division Slide 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?

Steven Vale - UNECE Statistical Division Slide 9 1 Source: UNECE, Database of International Statistical Activities

Steven Vale - UNECE Statistical Division Slide 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

Steven Vale - UNECE Statistical Division Slide 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

Steven Vale - UNECE Statistical Division Slide 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?

Steven Vale - UNECE Statistical Division Slide 13 Layers of Metadata? Summary Metadata for “Tourists” Intermediate Metadata for “Harvesters” Detailed Metadata for “Miners” Drill down

Steven Vale - UNECE Statistical Division Slide 14 Metadata layers in practice  Quality Reports Summary – “traffic light” indicator  Red – Serious quality issues, read the quality 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

Steven Vale - UNECE Statistical Division Slide 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”

Steven Vale - UNECE Statistical Division Slide 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

Steven Vale - UNECE Statistical Division Slide 17 Thank-you for listening! Comments and Questions?