Presentation by the Office for National Statistics' Dan Wainwright and Ahmad Barclay at Data Journalism UK 2022

1. Innovation and
putting the “us” in
Census
Ahmad Barclay and Daniel Wainwright, ONS
Data Journalism UK, May 2022

2. 97% of
households
responded
22 million
online forms
56% on
mobiles, 9%
on tablets
90%
responded
online
35% used
desktops
of
which

3. 3

4. 4
In some areas [of England],
around a quarter of adults [age 16
to 65 years] have the numeracy
skills of a seven to nine-year-old
or below.
Skills for Life Survey, 2011
“

5. User personas
5
“I like to
play with
data and
technology”
“I live and
breathe
data and
statistics”
“It’s hard to
find the
information
I need”
“I have a
need to find
trustworthy
data”
“I want to
form my
own opinion
based on
fact”
“I’m
informed
via the
media”
Technical
user
Expert
Analyst
Policy
influencer
Information
forager
Inquiring
citizen
Passive
citizen

6. User personas
6
“I like to
play with
data and
technology”
“I live and
breathe
data and
statistics”
“It’s hard to
find the
information
I need”
“I have a
need to find
trustworthy
data”
“I want to
form my
own
opinion
based on
fact”
“I’m
informed
via the
media”
Technical
user
Expert
Analyst
Policy
influencer
Information
forager
Inquiring
citizen
Passive
citizen
Give me the
data / let
me explore
Help me
understand

7. 7
MISSION
Making census data
open, accessible,
useful & engaging for
citizens

8. Exploratory
tools
Games &
quizzes
Guided
experiences
Robo-
journalism

9. 1. Exploratory Tools
9
Traditional interactive data “dashboards” and related outputs,
offering users the bespoke tools to freely explore data.

10. 10 Census data vis atlas
“Atlas”
prototype,
allowing
users to
visualise
patterns in
data

11. 11 Census Area Explorer
“Area
Explorer”
prototype,
allowing
users to
explore data
down to small
area
geographies

12. 12 Census Sub-Population Explorer
“Population
group
profiles”
prototype,
allowing
users to
explore
different
population
groups

13. 13 Draw your own geography
“Custom
Profiles” tool to
help aggregate
data for custom
geographies

14. 14
Building tools
as embeddable
and shareable
resources, and
as entry points
to the raw data

15. 15
“Flexible Table
Builder” will allow
users to request
any multivariate
table, with built-in
disclosure control

16. 2. Guided Experiences
16
“Scrollytelling” articles that guide user through data and insights via
a linear narrative combined with dynamic data visualisation.

17. 17 Exploring local income inequality
Data-driven
templates
embedded in a
“scrollytelling”
release.
Select a local
authority for a
localised article

18. 3. Semi-Automated
Articles
18
Generating localised or personalised stories, insights
and charts using data-driven templates

19. 19 “Robo-journalism” demo
Area reports for
hundreds of
areas,
generated from
data-driven
templates
It’s not a quick
alternative to
writing them out
– we simply
wouldn’t have
the capacity to
do it otherwise

20. 20 “Robo-journalism” demo
Spot-checking
samples for
style, spelling
etc while QA-ing
the script
It’s a big step for
the organisation
and people get
nervous
But not doing it
means users
could miss out
on their local
stories

21. 4. Games & Quizzes
(AKA Edu-tainment)
21

22. 22
Higher or lower hexmap
game
Different games from
beat the clock to daily
game
Share your score
Maybe the New York
Times will buy it?

23. 23
Quick fire trivia
quiz game with
auto-generated
questions

24. Serving those
multiple platforms
24

25. 25
Charts, maps
and tools made
by our data vis
team come with
an iframe you
can embed in
your story
How to embed our
interactives...
How to embed ONS interactives in your
website

26. 26
…and make them responsive
You can re-use the same code,
changing only the URL of the
interactive (the bit including dvc
and the section after it), which you
can get from the iframe code
It gets rid of scroll bars and re-
sizes to fit mobiles (like Ant-Man)
How to embed ONS interactives in
your website

27. How we’re building
our tools and articles
27

28. v1.x

29. 29
Reactive
templating with
HTML and JS
+
Sandbox for
starting and
sharing
projects in the
browser

30. 30
Building with
reusable
components
and templates

31. 31
Syncing text
with dynamic
charts and
maps
(scrollytelling!)

33. 33
Pre-rendering
300+ versions
of a localised
release for
each local
authority in
England and
Wales

34. 34
github.com/ONSvisual/census-prototypes

35. How can we help you?
35

36. 36
How can we help you?
● Further walk throughs of Census tools so you can get
the data you want
● Demo and discussion of APIs etc
● Analytical collaboration – discussion of key analytical
areas of interest and where we can add value in
partnership

37. 37
Can we keep in touch?
● Can we contact you about testing
our products?
● Let us know if you’d be willing for
us to contact you about possibly
working together
●https://bit.ly/datajourno22

38. 38
Get in touch
● Daniel.Wainwright@ons.gov.uk
● Ahmad.Barclay@ons.gov.uk
● @danwainwright
● @bothness