Interactive Dashboards

Consultation objectives

As Canada's national statistical organization, Statistics Canada provides Canadians with high-quality statistics from hundreds of surveys and numerous administrative data sources.

In an ongoing effort to make this data more accessible, interactive dashboards are being created to help users obtain data in an easy, attractive and modern manner. To achieve this goal, the dashboards are intended to enrich user experience by allowing the user to obtain data in an efficient manner.

To test these new dashboards, we looked to gain insights on the intuitiveness and usefulness of these new products.

Consultation methodology

Statistics Canada conducted in-person usability consultations. Participants were asked to complete a series of tasks and to provide feedback on various interactive dashboards.

How to get involved

Individuals who wish to obtain more information or to take part in a future consultation may contact Statistics Canada by sending an email to statcan.consultations-consultations.statcan@statcan.gc.ca.

Please note that Statistics Canada selects participants for each consultation to ensure feedback is sought from a representative sample of the target population for the study. Not all applicants will be asked to participate in a given consultation.

Statistics Canada is committed to respecting the privacy of consultation participants. All personal information created, held or collected by the agency is protected by the Privacy Act. For more information on Statistics Canada's privacy policies, please consult the Privacy notice.

Results

What worked

Most participants were able to complete the majority of tasks on the four tested interactive dashboards. Overall, each of the dashboards was well received by participants. They found them to be attractive and useful, particularly the maps.

Areas for improvement

• Participants found it challenging to use some of the interactive features, for example:
  • When hovering over certain components of the dashboards, participants were often not aware that pertinent information could be found in hover boxes and experienced some difficulty making the hover boxes reappear.
  • Participants did not always know what data or measure were presented in some graphs, charts and maps.
  • Participants experienced some difficulty in identifying which information would be found under which section of the dashboards.

Recommendations

• The functionality of interactive components, such as maps, should be clear and intuitive.
• It must be clearly indicated to users when added information can be found in hover boxes. In addition, hover box functionality should be adjusted accordingly to allow users to easily access to the information found within them.
• Ensure that units of measure and labels in graphs, charts and maps are clear and concise.
• All page sections and graph features must be clearly and fully labelled to ensure that users know what to expect in each.

Statistics Canada thanks participants for their participation in this consultation. Their insights guide the agency's web development and ensure that the final products meet users' expectations.