Enhancing Transparency through Interactive Data Visualization

Background

The Office of Natural Resources Revenue (ONRR) manages billions of dollars in payments from companies extracting natural resources on federal lands and offshore areas. Ensuring transparent distribution of these funds to public programs and communities is central to ONRR’s mission. To enhance transparency and public engagement, ONRR maintains an open-data website detailing revenue sources and distributions, aiming to improve user understanding and government accountability.

Project Details

In partnership with ONRR, the SUDS team focused on enhancing user interaction and understanding through effective data visualization and user experience improvements. Key objectives included:

• Conducting comprehensive user testing sessions to gather qualitative insights on how different stakeholders—such as citizens, industry representatives, policymakers, journalists, and researchers—interact with ONRR’s online platform.
• Leveraging user research findings to inform the redesign of visualizations, prioritizing accessibility, clarity, and ease of understanding.
• Developing interactive visualizations and dashboards using modern web technologies (D3.js and React) to present complex natural resource revenue data in intuitive, engaging formats.
• Integrating ONRR’s internal datasets with external sources to provide comprehensive and contextual insights, deepening public understanding of natural resource management.

Deliverables

• Interactive Data Displays: Engaging, web-based visualizations built with D3.js and React, clearly communicating revenue collection and distribution patterns.
• User Research Insights: A detailed analysis of user interactions, preferences, and challenges gathered from extensive user testing sessions, informing subsequent design decisions.
• Accessible and Clear Visualizations: Enhanced visual interfaces developed specifically to meet diverse audience needs, ensuring accessibility and ease of comprehension.
• Data Integration Strategy: Documented methodologies for combining ONRR data with relevant external datasets to enrich insights.

Outcomes

This collaboration significantly increased the transparency, accessibility, and user-friendliness of ONRR’s public data resources. By integrating robust interactive visualizations based on targeted user research, ONRR’s website effectively conveyed intricate revenue management processes clearly to diverse stakeholders, including policymakers, journalists, and the general public. This resulted in enhanced public engagement, stronger accountability, and reinforced ONRR’s commitment to transparent, responsible management of natural resources revenue.