Civic Digital Fellows showcase small business data
Fellows were an inspiring part of the Census Bureau’s “FutureON” initiative
Note: The following article was shared at the U.S. Census Bureau to highlight the work of three of our 2017 Civic Digital Fellows: Anna Wang, Mariam Baqai, and Rachel Dodell. It has been slightly edited for clarity.
A fellowship at the U.S. Census Bureau is not like the average internship someplace else. Our Civic Digital Fellows got their feet wet and hands dirty while working one-on-one with mentors and creating something meaningful. Learn how three young women rolled up their sleeves and designed a website ready for publishing.
When three young college students decided they wanted to take on a summer internship, they probably didn’t know just how much the U.S. Census Bureau had to offer them. But, when they applied to the new Civic Digital Fellowship program and were accepted, these students from different parts of the country knew they had made the right choice.
Rachel Dodell, an incoming senior at Wellesley College, said this was her first experience working with the federal government and was excited by the opportunity to bring new perspectives to the table.
“We sometimes think the government isn’t innovative, particularly amongst college students,” said Dodell, “but the students participating in this fellowship have backgrounds in computer science, design, product management and engineering.”
Soon, Dodell met Anna Wang, an incoming senior at the University of Texas Austin and Mariam Baqai, an incoming junior at Mills College. The three ended up not only living together in Washington, D.C.’s NoMa district, but also working on the same project here at the Census Bureau.
“We ended up picking small businesses because no one owned that content yet, and it was a user group that needs Census data but was not yet using a lot of it,” said Wang, “and so what I tried to do was to refine that from the very beginning, how do we narrow down this project? How do we narrow it in scope so that we can finish it in ten weeks?”
They got working on building a more user-friendly way to help users find the data they need for their businesses — using the Small Business section on census.gov and the Census Business Builder tool.
“There were only about 400 people that visited the Small Business Topics on census.gov this past year — that’s tiny, it’s hidden, it’s so hard to find the Small Business Page,” said Wang. “And then when people actually get to the page, about 46% of small business users clicked out of the page without actually touching the rest of the website.”
And then there’s the Census Business Builder tool — a platform where business owners can go and find the data that pertains to their specific business.
“When we first saw this tool, we tried to navigate it ourselves and clicked everywhere until we got lost,” said Mariam Baqai. “We eventually found our way around it, but looking at the analytics report, we found that 56% of people clicked out without making a report, which is the main feature of this tool.”
Essentially, the fellows wanted to find a way where they could bypass the front end of the Census Business Builder tool and still have users — particularly ones unfamiliar with Census data — get to the data they need quickly and build a report in fewer steps.
“That’s why this new website we built is so great; it puts the Census Business Builder report front and center for people to use, plain and simple,” said Wang. “We also have more communication of what the data available can be used for on the home page.”
Intended for small businesses that are unfamiliar with Census data, this new site created by the fellows does not replace Census Business Builder. Instead, it actually links to it so the novice data user can be made aware of what data the Census Bureau has available for small businesses and have simple instructions and interfaces to get them started. The fellows worked with Census Bureau staff and supervisors and even gave a presentation at the Department of Commerce where they got the chance to showcase the work they had done.
“I think our different our backgrounds really complemented each other really well during the whole time we worked on this project,” said Dodell. “Especially when we are trying to make something like a massive website.”
The small business website is currently being reviewed internally and will soon be launched in beta on census.gov. For now, you can check out the project on GitHub. Further feedback will be solicited by contacts at the U.S. Small Business Administration.
