Distilling jargon: A case study examining the efficacy of government information visualizations

Kilgour, Lauren; Mattern, Eleanor

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/73720 Copy

Description

Title

Distilling jargon: A case study examining the efficacy of government information visualizations

Author(s)

• Kilgour, Lauren
• Mattern, Eleanor

Issue Date

2015-03-15

Keyword(s)

• information policy and open access
• information services
• information visualization

Abstract

In 2010, the federal government passed the Plain Writing Act, a piece of legislation that calls for clearly and concisely written government information. While this statute focuses on textual communication, its passage illustrates the government’s broader concerns with improving the accessibility of all government information. The same principles should guide the creation of non-textual communications, including visualizations intended to illustrate and accompany government information. This poster applies a case study approach to consider how current visualization methods and techniques might be modified in the future to more equitably distill government jargon. The case study looks at the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) and how this act is currently being visualized for lay audiences. We compare and contrast the text and visual versions of the ACA to examine what information is lost when concepts are transferred into visual format, as well to consider the efficacy of the visualization.

Publisher

iSchools

Series/Report Name or Number

iConference 2015 Proceedings

Type of Resource

text

Language

English

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http://hdl.handle.net/2142/73720

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Copyright 2015 is held by the authors. Copyright permissions, when appropriate, must be obtained directly from the authors.

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