How transparency has become a video game:
http://statestat.maryland.gov/...
The highly-touted Maryland StateStat "transparency" Web site is a design joke. Who comes up with the stuff?
Clearly not the actual users of the information, like maybe, the public; the press; bloggers.
First of all, the map there requires Flash 10. Since when should a public information Web site require -- require -- third-party software?
That's a Web design no-no if there's no alternative mode of viewing the same information. Forget the arrogance of whoever designed it.
Second, someone had to code this junk. That costs the public money. Shouldn't that money be used for putting searchable PDFs online, rather than blingy-blingy wingy-dingy mappie thingies?
The mappie thingies don't make the data more accessible, easier to understand, or easier to use.
Nor is the map resizable. It's a little porthole on my great big screen.
Edward Tufte wrote "Visual Display of Quantitative Information" years ago, for a reason. Memo to Maryland's StateStat designers: read a book. That book.
Third, you can't capture the data on your computer. Bring Flash 10 AND a pencil and paper.
Fourth, you can't easily "drill down" (hate that phrase) to the underlying data.
Fifth, how can search engines index information which is hidden in a Flash animation? Answer -- they can't.
Sixth, obvious things aren't proofed: go to the main home page and you'll thee the page title is "StatStat."
Six point five: Meanwhile, back at the map, there's no page title. Instead, your History list or browser tab will show the ultra-user-friendly page title: statestat.maryland.gov/overview.asp#
Seventh, user feedback is broken. Not at a Web page level -- you can click a "contact" link at the bottom of the page and fill out a form to the governor.
No, in terms of actual communication with the people who design and manage the StateStat Web site.
Expert users would be serious bloggers or reporters. If you tell the "media contacts" in a given agency about a problem, the reception you get when you report a problem or offer an opinion (as a user, citizen and taxpayer) is usually along the lines of "We'll ask our IT people."
If you send feedback to someone a little higher in the state job food chain, it's "I don't understand the Web, why are you telling me this?"
(To be fair, sites like HuffPo and even this one have an indecipherable feedback mechanism too, and even the Washington Post's ombudsman admits that they're pretty well hidden the means to contact him from their Web site; but they're not the government. Once the gov't hops on the "data on the Web" bandwagon, I expect them to do a good job of it, because they're working for me.)
I don't notice any contact name on the page, but if you go looking in the Gov's office, you will find that someone has been appointed to a job to oversee all this:
Beth Blauer
Director
State of Maryland Executive Department
Governor's StateStat Office
410-974-2249
bblauer@gov.state.md.us
Don't you think her name ought to be immediately available to users on the page? I do. It's called "accountability."