Background
NYC Population FactFinder (PFF) is a map-based web application that provides the general public with access to population datasets. These datasets show the latest demographic, social, economic, and housing characteristics, and how they have changed over time. The data sets are available for different geographic boundaries (ex. Borough or Citywide) and are displayed in tables and charts.
Scope
New Feature
Role
Interaction Designer
Duration
March 2023
Problem
Every time a user selects a geographic area, the application generates data tables in real-time. However, if a user selects a large number of areas (500+ tracts), they end up waiting ten seconds or more to view their data, leading to a frustrating and unreliable experience.
Design Solutions
Preventing user error
To ensure the users were less frustrated, we decided to add more transparency in the selection experience. We added messaging in the selection modal to let them know at which amount they’ll experience a longer than 3 second wait time. We also implemented a hard limit to the selection amount to prevent experience with an endless wait time.
Providing delight in experience
Initially, we thought to provide a standard loading spinner screen with user friendly text to give the user feedback and context that the tables were taking awhile to generate.
However, because government websites tend to have more constraints and a reputation for being less engaging, I sketched out an alternative solution for fun. I thought of moving buildings while thinking about the Department of City Planning and how we are often associated with NYC’s built environment.
While playing around with After Effects, Figma, and Lottie Lab, I was able to get support for the alternative solution and we were able to implement a more delightful but still effective solution to the wait time.
Reflection & Next Steps
Sometimes, it’s okay to design beyond the requirements.
This project ended up being very fun to tackle. It involved programs I never used before and a format (Lottie) I wasn’t familiar with. I was very surprised that a side exploration I initially started to practice motion design and explore Lotties ended up actually being an implemented solution.
If I were able to build off of this project, I would love to analyze our other applications and identify microinteractions that we can add delight to.
You can view the live site here.