documentation: redesign concept needs summary sample interview results sitemap map interface

Project: MAS/CITI RedesignOctober 21, 2008 Version 2.0

Prepared by: Noreen Y. Whysel [email protected]/917-826-9644

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Community Information Technology Initiative myciti.org Redesign

Prepared for the Municipal Art Society

Documentation:Redesign Concept

Needs Summary

Sample Interview Results

Sitemap

Map Interface

Search Interface

Current CITI Map Site

List of Services Provided



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Redesign Concept

The Municipal Art Society’s Community Information Technology Initiative (CITI) seeks to provide community-based organizations with maps, data and technical assistance to support local planning efforts. The initiative will provide an online, public geographic information system (GIS), including a number of useful and necessary data layers for local development projects and zoning planning, and will also provide a pilot group of New York City community boards with desktop GIS software and training. The ultimate goal of the CITI program is the adoption of a publicly-accessible GIS by the City of New York.

The Website. The CITI website is an online community mapping system that gives the public access to the power of GIS technology at minimal cost.

Challenge. Well-funded commercial enterprises such as developers, lawyers and environmental engineering firms routinely use GIS systems to plan and advocate for development projects. The cost of these systems and the data analyzed can be prohibitive for small, under-funded community groups and community boards. CITI’s challenge is to make the data and the analytical tools used by developers and their consultants, available to these groups via a publicly-accessible GIS system. A related challenge to convince the New York City Department of City Planning to make their data available in such a system and present it on its public website.

Solution. CITI has partnered with ESRI (a GIS software provider) and NYPIRG’s Community Mapping Assistance Project (CMAP) in creating an online GIS system that will be free and publicly available. Myciti.org will allow users to select data layers, review data, print maps and forward maps via email. My task in this projects is to interview community board members participating in the pilot program to determine data content requirements, measure usability of the current system and outline suggested improvements to be implemented by the development team at CMAP. I am also designing the non-GIS pages for the website.



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Needs SummaryCITI Project Needs Assessment Summary of Data Layer Needs A survey of community board participating in our pilot program resulted in the following data layer requirements: Zoning vs. Actual Use The most requested feature was a way to break

down actual use into further subcategories and then layer them over a zoning subcategory indicating allowable uses.

Institutions – Schools (by type of school, public/private,

nursery/elementary/middle/high) Religious Facilities Etc. Residential Luxury Mitchell Lama NYCHA Senior Housing Rent Controlled/Stabilized Etc. Mixed Use – Percentage residential Percentage commercial Etc. Parks – Recreational (ballparks, playgrounds, jogging) Non-recreational Parks Dept Buildings Parking lots and roadways Census Layer The second most requested feature was a way

to overlay layers with population, housing and income data.

Housing Data Number of housing units Number of households Houshold density Residential vacancy rate Historic Districts Business Improvement Districts and Economic Development Zones Construction Data Permits proposed construction under construction (major projects) ongoing infrastructure improvements Transportation Bus routes subway routes hubs proposed routes traffic density/capacity parking zones & facilities Aerial Map



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Sample Interview ResultsMYCITI.ORG Functional Requirements Survey Results Manhattan Community Board 1 Function Need CB Information CB Info should include District Manager name and contact since they would

be more available to answer questions on a day to day basis

CB Information “Chair Person” should be “Chairperson”

Search Box Format Layer/Label checkboxes should have header for each group instead of just at top of panel, hard to understand what the boxes mean when you scroll down

Queens Community Board 3 Function Need Map View A "District View" button similar to "City View" would be helpful.

Map View Be good to get an aerial view of map selection area. "Click here for aerial

view."

Search Ability to enter an address and /or a specific block and automatically zoom to a specific area radius, e.g., show area one quarter mile around a specific subway entrance.

Navigation When navigating a map there are 8 sets of 3 arrows. Not sure how they work. Need clear explanation of what these arrows do and how far it will move the map.

Layers/Resources If you can create layers with school information and a school is not located on selected area, is there a way to indicate where the closest one is, eg. closest high school, closest elementary school? Same can go for other property time.

Layout Is it possible to get more screen space for the map?

Output Need to be able to generate .pdfs and/or other file formats. Possibly through the Print button. I.e, way to create a pdf or jpg file directly from the website.

Output Can we store static map on a central server, or do we need to use our own space?

Output What file format should images be saved in? Can we get standards for output?

Metadata Need notations as to the currency and source (meta info).

Manhattan Community Board 7 Function Need Map View Would like to provide an aerial map but are concerned about bandwidth issues.

Is there a way to indicate to the user minimum connection requirement before they access large graphical layers?

Output Would like to be able to include photos of a site or historic landmark.

Output A “My CITI” tab that saves maps you created (or just the parameters for those maps)

Resources Would like a link to school board site from identified schools/CB and key links into agency information. They would like to open discussion with other CBs as to what those key links should be.

Resources Link to Dept. of Buildings’ Building Information System (BIS), which rates various types of buildings.

Resources Would like an interactive feature that allows you to enter the type of data you are interested and it outputs a URL of resources (e.g., building violations, school districts, restaurant violations.

Brooklyn Community Board 2 Function Need Layers/Demographics When a building is identified, link to statistics data on census tract or by

block/lot, if available, aggregated if necessary to protect privacy.

Layers Ability to show number of housing units in commercial/mixed use lots where housing exists.

Output Downloadable data

Output Ability to put their own labels and boundary lines, aggregate census data with callout boxes, and customize data presented when printing the map.



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Site Map

Home Page1.0

Resources 4.0

Help 5.0

Contact CITI 3.0

About Us 2/0

CITI Project2.1

Link to GIS at oasisnyc.net

Training Handbook

4.1

Youth Handbook

4.2

Zoning Guide4.3

The CITI website contains information about the program and its participants, resources developed by the Municipal Art Society’s Planning Center to support the project, including a zoning guide and training handbook, a one-page help document and information about its youth outreach program. The GIS portion of the CITI project is hosted by CMAP’s Oasisnyc system, which links to an external site.

Youth Outreach 2.2

(PDF)

Newsletter Archive

2.3



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CITI Map Interface - myciti.org Map Interface - myciti.org

The data architecture of myciti.org is typical of geographic information systems (GIS).

A - Identify allows users to select a data feature of the map and display the corresponding data table.

B - Zoom In/Zoom Out changes the map view to smaller or larger areas.

C - Recenter allows the user to define a new center point.

D - The map frame contains small arrows allowing the user to pan the map within the map window.

E - Legend contains layers that can be turned on and off, limiting the amount of data displayed at one time. These layers, which can represent polygons, lines, or points, are grouped according to similar data types. Buttons allow you to select or unselect all layers and to refresh map to display the selected layers.

F - Citywide vew returns to the default map coordinates.

G - Additional non-GIS functions include Print a Map and Email Map.

ABC

D E

FG



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CITI Search Interface - myciti.org Search Interface - myciti.org

The search page allows you to search for a property or community board within the default layers.

A - Street Address search allows user to enter a street address and a borough to search. The result page loads the identified property and relevant data table.

B - Block/Lot search allows user to enter a property block and lot and the borough. The result page loads the identified property and relevant data table.

C - Community board search allows users to select a community board. The result page shows the boundaries of the selected community board.

Some simple changes to the layout and dropdown text improved usability. A similar search page can be used for the redesigned site within OASISNYC.NET.

A

B

C



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Current CITI Map SiteCurrent Site at NYC Department of City Planning (DCP)

The CITI map program was adopted by the Department of City Planning, fulfilling the mission of the Municipal Art Society’s initiative.

I did not create this page for DCP, but you will notice that much of the interface and data was incorporated in their design, including building/lot, political and data layer information. The DCP continues to provide access to their data data via the CITI map portal that I designed, which is now at http://www.myciti.org. (below)



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List of Services Provided

• Requirements Gathering

• Functional Documentation

• Usability analysis

• Content development

• User Interface Design

• Graphic Design

• Javascript

• HTML

• Community outreach program

• Newsletter design

• Training and program facilitation

documentation: redesign concept needs summary sample interview results sitemap map interface

Documents

data available

income data

review data

online gis system

accessible gis system

gis systems

necessary data layers

data content requirements