Data Visualization and Online Reports Nicole Dewees, MBA, CIA Senior Management Auditor Multnomah County Auditor’s Office

Shift in How People Access Our Reports 2

Pew Research Study Where did you get news yesterday? 3

Pew Research Study Where did you get news yesterday? 4

Mobile Devices Source: Pew Research CenterSource: Multnomah County Information Technology 5

People read differently online They skim! More likely to read: o Bullet points o Headers o Very short paragraphs Eye studies: o Look at 20-80% of text o Look at nearly 100% of visuals (pictures, graphs) 6

More Words on Web Page = Lower Percent Read Source: Nielsen Norman Group Percent of words read Number of Words on a Web Page My first audit report had an average of 234 words per page. That means that people read roughly 38% of what I wrote. 7

New Reality: Reports for Print and Online Readers Most audit reports formatted for print readers only PDFs are particularly difficult for mobile users Online users need different formats 8

Additional Benefits of Online Reports Share more information without being visually overwhelming Empower people to answer their own questions Make the audience an active participant 9

Multnomah County Examples Financial Condition Report Old format: New format: ice#!/vizhome/R07FinancialConditionReport_0/ReportTitle ice#!/vizhome/R07FinancialConditionReport_0/ReportTitle Property taxes Traditional report: Tax-Final%20Report.pdf Tax-Final%20Report.pdf Interactive report: Pay Equity Service Distribution Housing Programs ice#!/vizhome/HousingInventoryOctober2014/Housing ice#!/vizhome/HousingInventoryOctober2014/Housing 10

Other Examples City of Portland Auditor’s Office: Metro: were-growing JLARC: htm#Results htm#Results 11